social policy Flashcards
(40 cards)
Social policy
actions of state agencies
based on laws introduced by government
provide framework within which these agencies operate
policies not aimed at families but still have an effect on them (2)
policy of compulsory education enables parents to go out and work
taxation policies affect how much money is taken from families and how much is made available to pay for services provided for families
China’s one-child policy
aimed to discourage couples from having more than one child
couples who comply with the policy get extra benefits: free child healthcare, higher tax allowance, priority in education and housing in later life (for the one child)
women face pressure to undergo sterilization after their first child
couples who break agreement must repay the allowances and pay a fine
communist Russia (1980s)
series of policies to drive up birth rate
restricted contraception and abortion, made divorce harder, lowered legal age of marriage (15), made unmarried adults and childless couples pay extra 5% income tax
Nazi family policy (1930s)
state pursued a twofold policy
encouraged supposedly ‘racially pure’ to breed a master race: restricting abortion and contraception
official policy sought to keep women out of the workforce and confine them to ‘children, kitchen and church’
state compulsory sterilised 375000 disabled people that it deemed unfit to breed on grounds of ‘physical malformation, mental retardation, epilepsy, imbecility, deafness or blindness’
social policy in Democratic societies in relation to families
family is a private sphere of life in which the government does not intervene, except perhaps when things go wrong such as child abuse
Functionalism on social policies
acting in the interest of society as a whole
social policies being for the good of all
see policies as helping families to perform their functions more effectively
make better life for their members
Ronald Fletcher on social policy
introduction of health, education and housing policies in the years since the industrial revolution gradually led to development of welfare state that supports family
NHS- family is better able to take care of its members when they are sick
Criticisms of the functionalist view (2)
assumed all members of the family benefit equally, whereas feminists argue that policies often benefit men at the expense of women
assumes that there is a ‘march of progress’ -social policies steadily making family life better and better
Marxist argue that policies can also turn back the clock and reverse progress previously made, cutting welfare benefits to poor families
Rachel Condry on social policy
state may seek to control and regulate family life by imposing compulsory Parenting Orders through the courts
(Parents of young offenders may be forced to attend parenting classes to learn the correct way to bring up their children)
explain Donzelot: policing the family
uses Foucault’s concept of surveillance
Donzelot applies these ideas to the family
argues that social workers, health visitors and doctors use their knowledge to control and change families
calls this ‘the policing of families’
(Focault sees professionals such as doctors and social workers as exercising power over their clients by using their expert knowledge to turn them into ‘cases’ to be dealt with)
surveillance not targeted on all social classes equally - poor families more likely to be seen as cause of crime and anti-social behaviour : these are families that professionals target for improvement
Jacques Donzelot overview
conflict view of society
sees policy as a form of state power and control over families
who though that the state polices the family thru social policy
Donzelot
Marxist and feminist criticisms of Donzelot
failing to identify clearly who benefits from such policies of surveillance
Marxist argue that policies generally operate in the interests of the capitalist class
feminists argue that men are the main beneficiaries
new right on social policy
-what kinda problems does this create
policies have encouraged changes that lead to greater family diversity (increases in divorce, cohabitation, same-sex partnerships etc) are threatening the conventional family and producing social problems such as crime and welfare dependency
Brenda Almond argues on social policies
(4)
modern policies and why they go against new right ideology
new right
-Laws making divorce easier
-introduction of civil partnerships sends out message that the state no longer sees heteresexual marriage as superior to other domestic set-ups
-tax laws discriminate against conventional families: tend to pay more tax than a dual-earner couple, each of whom has a tax allowance
-increased rights for unmarried cohabitants such as adoption rights and succession for council houses tenancies and pension rights when a partner dies, begins to make cohabitation and marriage more similar. sends out signal that the state does not see marriage as special or better
Charles Murray on social policy- examples of it
-what is he criticial of
critical of welfare policy
providing generous welfare benefits, council housing for unmarried teenage mothers which undermines conventional nuclear families and encourages deviant and dysfunctional family types that harm society
welfare benefits offer perverse incentives , they reward irresponsible or anti-social behaviour :
Murray argues that social policy is harmful because it will lead to: 3
if father see that the state will maintain their children, some of them will abandon their responsibilities towards their families
Providing council housing for unmarried teenage mothers encourages young girls to become pregnant
growth of lone-parent families, encouraged by generous benefits, means more boys grow up without a male role model or authority figure, responsible for rising crime rate amongst young males
why does Murray think Current policies are encouraging a dependency culture and what two problems does this cause
because individuals will come to depend on the state to support them and their children rather than being self-reliant
problem because:
it threatens two essential functions that the family fulfils for society:
successful socialisation of young
maintenance of the work ethic among men
The New Right’s solution to the problems social policy is causing
policy must be changed
cuts in welfare spending
tighter restrictions on who is eligible
reduce taxes by cutting welfare benefits and giving fathers more incentive to work and to provide for their families
denying council housing to unmarried teenage mothers would remove a major incentive to become pregnant very young
New Right also advocate policies to support the traditional nuclear family
such as taxes that favour married rather than cohabiting couples, making absent fathers financially responsible for their children
Functionalists Vs New Right
Functionalists: state welfare policies benefiting family- making it better able to meet its members’ needs
The New Right: the less the state interferes in families, the better family life will be
Evaluation of the New Right view (4)
-feminists: it is an attempt to justify a return to the traditional patriarchal nuclear family
-wrongly assumes that the patriarchal nuclear family is ‘natural’ rather than socially constructed
-Abbott and Wallace argue that cutting benefits would simply drive many poor families into even greater poverty and make them even less self-reliant
-New Right ignores many policies that support and maintain the conventional nuclear family rather than undermine it
Conservative government 1979-1997
who was in charge, what did they ban and set up
Mrs Thatcher’s conservative government
- banned the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities and ban on teaching that homosexuality was an acceptable family relationship
-Conservative saw divorce as a social problem so emphasised the continued responsibility of parents for their children after divorce
- Set up Child Support Agency to enforce maintenance payments from absent parents
New labour governments 1997-2010
similarities to New Right:
sees family as bedrock to society
see heterosexual, nuclear families as the best environment to bring up a child
new labour emphasised parental responsibility for bringing up their child
example: introducing parental orders for parents if young offenders
