New Right views on the family Flashcards
What are the general New Right views on the family?
The New Right argued that progressive policies have led to the decline of traditional family values.
Increases in divorce, lone-parent families and reproductive rights have seen the influence of the family decline.
Look back on a ‘golden age’ of family life, stable family structures that could provide for their own needs through employment.
What are Murray’s views on the family?
Murray argued that state spending on benefits had created a form of welfare dependency.
* Society has created a generation of ‘idle young men’ who lacked father figures and were the formation of an underclass.
* The underclass developed their own norms and values that differed from the rest of society, demonstrating criminal and antisocial behaviours.
What are the New Right influences on family policy?
Creation of CSA to ensure fathers paid support for their children.
Increased tax allowances for married couples.
Lower taxation to enable families to support themselves.
Reduction of state benefits.
What are the evaluations of the New Right views on the family?
Feminists argue that female lone-parent families are being scapegoated for structural inequalities in society.
Lone-parents are more likely to end up in poverty, even when in work, as a result to cuts in state spending.
Critics state that New Right policies are focused on economy rather than social aspects of society and can lead to marginalisation of social groups.
