FAMILY - New Right Flashcards
What do New Right sociologists argue about family types? HINT: Nuclear is best!
They argue that the nuclear family is the bedrock of society and should be the main and only family type in society!
What is a Nuclear Family?
A Nuclear Family includes two (married, heterosexual) parents with a small number of children. Sometimes described as the ‘cereal packet family’; this is because of the way it is presented as ideal and the norm in various areas of society (including advertising).
What do the New Right argue about the Nuclear Family? HINT: Undermined by government policies
The New Right argue that this family form is essential for the functioning of a good society, but that various government policies and social attitudes have combined to undermine the family.
What does Charles Murray (1998) say about the undermining and the breakdown of the nuclear family?
Murray argues that welfare policies have undermined the nuclear family and given ‘perverse incentives’ for people to start single-parent families or to end their marriages and form single-parent families - This leads to the BREAKDOWN OF THE NUCLEAR FAMILY!
What does Murray say in regards to the ‘dependency culture’ created by the welfare state?
He argues that the welfare state has led to a dependency culture where an underclass of people live off benefits and have no aspiration to work for a living. He argues that teenage girls see pregnancy and single parenthood as a route to financial support and housing.
What does Murray say in regards to Functionalism and Murdock? HINT: The state provides the economic function; no incentive to work
He further argues that, while Murdock suggested that the family had an economic function, for underclass families this function is now carried out by the state. This means that individuals conclude that they can have children without there being a working parent (because the state will provide) so there is no incentive to work at a relationship and keep a family together (and indeed less sense of responsibility for fathers to stick around and provide for their children). Furthermore, the benefits system means that more children will bring more money, so it pays to have a large single-parent family rather than a small one.
What is one evaluation point of the New Right views towards the family? HINT: Victim blaming
A lot of sociologists strongly disagree with the New Right view. They are accused of “blaming the victim”. It is a theory that tends to blame the poor for their own poverty, rather than seeking other explanations for why people find themselves in need of welfare payments!
What is another evaluation point of the New Right views towards the family? HINT: Political ideology for the upper class
Some argue that the New Right is not really a sociological perspective but a political position; Marxists would argue that the New Right is merely an ideological justification for capitalist and bourgeois politics. It is a convenient case for cutting public spending on welfare (and therefore either reducing taxes on the wealthy or channelling money into preferred projects).
