Topic 4 - Social Policy Flashcards
What are the key areas focused on in topic 4 social policy?
- Comparative view of family policy
- Perspectives on families and social policy
1. Functionalists
2. Donzelot
3. The New Right
4. Marxism
5. Feminism
Define the comparative view
Looking at different societies and historical periods to see how the government’s actions affect families.
Explain how China’s one-child policy works
Use of population control to discourage couples from having more than one child.
Women must seek permission to get pregnant.
Couples with one or no children get extra benefits.
How did Communist Romania try to increase birth rates?
- restricted contraception
- set up infertility treatment centres
- lowered the legal age of marriage to 15
How did Nazi Germany try to produce a ‘master race’
- encouraged women who ‘racially pure’ to have children
- kept women out of the workforce
- sterilised and killed people with disabilities
How are families treated in democratic society?
Policies are not as extreme. Family is seen as a private sphere where the government doesn’t intervene other than in cases of abuse.
Sociologists argue democratic societies policies still play a massive role in shaping families.
How do Functionalists view social policies use when considering families. (Theorist)
They see policies as helping families perform their function better.
Fletcher argues the introduction of health, education and housing policy has developed the welfare state supporting families.
Criticise (using a perspective) the Functionalist view of how social policies affect families.
Feminists argue that not all members of the family are equal. Policy supports men more than women.
How does Donzelot view the idea of using social policy on family.
Donzalot sees policy as creating conflict and helping the state exert power. Allowing professionals to carry out surveillance on families.
Poor families are impacted by this more as they are seen as ‘problem families.’
He sees ‘caring professionals’ as agents of social control
How does The New Right believe social policy has impacted families.
They see Nuclear Families as ideal. Changes to divorce, cohab, and same sex marriages via policies have undermined this.
They want more Conservative social policy.
Provide a new right thinker who criticises the welfare system. What does he say?
Murray argues these benefits offer ‘perverse insentives’
- If the father thing the state will protect their children, they may feel they can abandon them
- providing council houses to unmarried mothers encourages tean pregnancies
What is the New Rights solution to how social policy has impacted families?
Policy must be changed with cuts to welfare spending and tighter restrictions to eligibility for benefits.
Criticise the New Right solution to social policy and family using a perspective.
Feminists - the solution attempts to return to traditional patriarchal nuclear families that suppress women and confine them to a domestic role.
What party had control between 1979-97? What did they change relating to social policy impacting families.
Conservative Government
- banned the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities and teachers
- defined divorce as a social problem emphasising the need for continued support from both parents
- also introduced policies making divorce easier
Which party was in power from 1997-2010? What was their view on social policy relating to families?
New Labour
Share some similarities with New Right. They agreed family is thr bedrock of society and support heterosexual couples.
But believed both men and women should work.
