Theories and social policy Flashcards
What is the Feminist perspective on social policy and sociology?
-see society as being based on conflict
-based on patriarchy benefiting men at women’s expense
-argue that the state perpetuates female subordination through social policies.
What is the Marxist perspective on social policy and sociology?
-see society as divided by a conflict of interest in which the ruling capitalist class exploits the labour of the working class.
The state represents the ruling class and its social policies serve the interests of capitalism.
The state represents the ruling class and they use ideological law-making and selective law enforcement to further oppress the proletariat.
What is meant by the ‘caring face’ of capitalism?
-social policy offers create a ’caring face’ of capitalism.
-policies fool the poor into thinking that the state cares about them when in actual fact policies offer a distraction from the exploitation that exists in society.
-The introduction of the minimum wage helps to mask their exploitation by making it appear that the capitalist system cares about the poor.
-way of preventing revolution when class conflict threatens capitalism.
What is the Functionalists perspective on social policy and sociology?
-see society as being based on value consensus which is free from conflict.
Durkheim - through scientific research we could discover both the problems and solutions to society’s social ills.
Therefore sociology’s role is to provide the state with objective scientific information that they can use to base their policies on.
What is meant by ‘piecemeal and social engineering’?
-see the state as serving the interests of society as a whole and policies help society run more smoothly and efficiently.
-take a cautious approach, they tend to look at one issue at a time, this is called ‘piecemeal social engineering’.
What is the New Right perspective on social policy and sociology?
-believe the state should have minimal involvement in society.
-opposed to state involvement in the family, income support, education, and healthcare.
They feel that this takes away people’s choices and their feeling of personal responsibility.
What is the New Right perspective on the welfare state?
-Murray argues that the welfare state gives ‘perverse incentives’ that weaken self-reliance and encourages a dependency culture.
They want sociologists to come up with alternative policies to the existing ones.
What is the New Right perspective on New policy?
-want these new policies to restore the responsibility that the welfare state has taken away from individuals.
-want individuals to take responsibility for their own and their family’s welfare rather than leaving it to the state.
How is the Enlightenment project linked to the Enlightenment project?
-Was a project in the period in which scientific knowledge is providing the truth, rather than religion
-Liberal feminists believe that this is resulting in a better understanding of women’s oppression, and resulting improvements
What do Liberal feminists believe as a result of he enlightenment project for socialisation and policies?
-Society is gradually leading to more rational attitudes towards gender
- political action to introduce anti-discriminatory laws and policies are bringing progress to society in which gender is no longer important
What is a strength of the liberal feminists views on sociology?
- studies conducted by liberal feminists have led to the legitimation of the demand for reform in areas such as equal pay, media representations of gender and employment practices
What are the weaknesses of marxist and radical feminist on sociology?
marxist and radical feminists- liberals fail to recognise underlying causes of women’s subordination
- over- optimistic- they believe prejudices can be overcome by the onward ‘march of progress
- Ignore the possibility that there are deep-seated structures causing women’s oppression- such as capitalism or patriarchy
