What do sociologists think of social policies?

Question 1

Murray (New Right)

Answer 1

• very critical of past policies as he believed they contributed to the disintegration of the nuclear family
• young boys without a father would grow up to have discipline problems

Question 2

Silva and Smart (Labour)

Answer 2

• believe ‘strong families’ are more likely to be seen as traditional nuclear families
• New Labour’s policies were based around strengthening ‘conventional’ families

Question 3

Hayton (Coalition)

Answer 3

• splits the conservatives between modernisers and traditionalists

Question 4

Land (Feminist)

Answer 4

• social policies assume the ideal family is the patriarchal nuclear family

Question 5

Leonard (Feminist)

Answer 5

• even when policies appear to support women they may still act as a form of social control, reinforcing patriarchal assumptions and dictating roles

Question 6

Fletcher (Functionalist)

Answer 6

• the introduction of health, education and housing policies led to the development of a welfare state that supports families

Question 7

Donzelot (Postmodernist)

Answer 7

• policies are a form of state power over families
• uses Foucault’s concept of surveillance
• argues that social workers, health visitors and doctors use their knowledge to control and change families, what he calls ‘the policing of families’

Question 8

Condry (Postmodernist)

Answer 8

• the state may seek to control the parents of young offenders etc. by imposing Parenting Orders