Social Policy

Question 1

What is social policy

Answer 1

• sociologist often research social problems that have an influence on social polices

Question 2

Functionalism view on social policy

Answer 2

• see sociology as providing objective knowledge to guide social policy to help society function
• they tackle one issue at a time with ‘ piecemeal sociological engineering’ ( e.g creating policy on improving equal opportunity in education )
• Durkheim believed that though scientific research they could discover both the problems and solutions to societies problems through social facts. Therefore sociology’s role is to provide the state with objective scientific information they can use to base their policies on ( eg Durkheim research led him to proposing an educations system based on merit and the abolition of inherited wealth, he argues this would lead to more of a cohesive society

Question 3

New right and social policy

Answer 3

• reject social policy in suggesting it provides a culture of dependency
• believe the state should have minimal involvement in society
• they are opposed to the states involvement in the family, income support, education and health
• Murray argue that the welfare state gives perverse incentives which weakens self reliance and encourages a dependency culture
  -want individuals to take responsibility for their own and their families welfare rather than relying on the state

Question 4

Marxism and social policy

Answer 4

• critical of social policy in arguing for they maintain capitalism
• social policy legitimises the ideological by providing welfare state, this helps to ask capitalism by making it appear they care about the poor sick and old
• maintains the labour force for further exploitation eg nhs keeps workers fit enough to work

Question 5

Feminism and social policy

Answer 5

• see policy as a reflection of patriarchy, however they use research to influence policy in favour of women
• state based policies on the nucleur family so offers benefits to married couple and not cohabiting ones, therefore leading to self fulfilling prophecy by encouraging the nucleur family and making it difficult for other families
• the feminist movement has also had an impact on policy on equality ( sex discrimination act and the equal pay act )

Question 6

Social democrats and social policy

Answer 6

• believe sociology can propose policies that make major structural changes such as the abolition of poverty
• adopt a similar view to Marxists in terms of the existence of inequality and wanting to adopt a more equal society
• but unlike Marxists they believe sociological research can help the government to create policies that reduce inequality

Question 7

Postmodernism and social policy

Answer 7

• reject policy in determining it aims to fix issues that do not exist
• belive sociological research does not provide the truth because there is not the just many different forms of it, therefore sociological research only provides the possible truth
• creating social policies would be pointless due to how it aims to fix an issues that don’t exist