2.5 Social Policy

• China's One Child Policy

  - Law created in 1979 to slow down population growth and to prevent overpopulation

  fines for breaking policy

  now population is facing a decline as people see having one child to be the norm even though the policy has been revoked
• Communist Romania (1980s)

  restricted contraception + abortion + divorce

  wanted higher birth rate

  made unmarried adults pay an extra 5% tax
• Democratic societies

  family is a private sphere of life in which the government does not intervene, except perhaps when things go wrong such as child abuse
• Functionalist perspective on social policy

  state acts in interest of society to help the family fulfil its functions

  e.g. introduction of health + education help family
• Criticisms of functionalist view

  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
• Donzelot: policing the family


  -He takes a conflict view of social policy through Foucault's view of surveillance

  
  

  -Professionals survey the family, social workers, doctors and health visitors exercise their power

  -Poor families are watched more because they are seen as problems, they want to improve them
• Criticism of Donzelot

  Marxists and feminists criticise for failing to identify who benefits from such policies of surveillance
• New Right perspective on social policy

  State policies have helped to undermine the nuclear family

  laws for divorce

  laws for gay marriage

  tax laws against married couples dual earners get taxed less
• Dependency culture

  (Murray)

  individuals who rely on state welfare provision rather than entering the labour market

  encourages lone families
• New Right's solution

  argue policy must be changed

  cuts in welfare spending

  tighter restriction son who is eligible

  
  

  cutting welfare benefits would mean that taxes could also be reduced, 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
• Evaluation of New Right

  -Feminists argue that it is an attempt to justify a return to a patriarchal nuclear family

  -Abbott and Wallace argue that cutting benefits would simply drive poor families into even more poverty
• Conservative governments 1979-97

  Thatcher banned the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities and efined divorce as a social problem,

  but also introduced measures opposed to the New Right such as making divorce easier and giving illegitimate children the same rights as those born to married parents
• New labour governments 1997-2010

  Longer maternity leave, three months unpaid leave for both parents and the right to seek time off work for family reasons, The New Deal - helping lone parents return to work, civil partnerships for same sex couples, giving unmarried couples the same rights to adopt as married couples and outlawing discrimination on the grounds of sexuality
• Modernists vs. Traditionalists

  (Hayton)

  M- recognise diversity + reflect this in their policies

  T- favour new right view and reject diversity
• Policy as self fulfilling prophecy

  based on assumptions of what the normal family is like

  many policies see the ideal family as the patriarchal, nuclear family with man as breadwinner, women as homemaker and dependent children

  
  

  effect of the policies is to reinforce that particular type of family at the expense of other family types,

  
  

  these policies make it harder for people to live in other types of families than the ones the policymakers assume to be the ones they live in
• Policies supporting the patriarchal family (feminist)

  (Leonard)

  - Tax and benefits policies

  - Childcare

  - Care for the sick and elderly
• Evaluation of feminist view

  -not all policies are directed at maintaining patriarchy, there is equal pay and sex discrimination act, gay marriage in 2014 means lesbian couples can marry, benefits for lone parents etc. But they are likely to be women, enforcing patriarchy
• Gender regimes

  (Drew)

  either encourage or discourage equality in family + work

  
  

  Familistic- policies based on trad gender division

  
  

  Individualistic- based on belief of equality between husbands and wives
• State versus market

  Drew argues most European Union countries are now moving towards more individualistic gender regimes

  
  

  policies such as publicly funded healthcare do not come cheap, involve major conflicts about who should benefit from social policies and who should pay them

  can't assume there will be an inevitable march of progress towards gender equality

  
  

  since global recession in 2008, cutbacks in government spending have led to pressure on women to take more responsibility for caring as state retreats from providing welfare

  
  

  during this period trend towards neo-liberal policies in which family encouraged to use market rather than state to meet their needs,

  private pension provision and private care of the old

  
  

  differences between European countries show that social policies can play an important role in promoting or preventing gender equality in the family
• Criticism of gender regimes

  sweden - policies treat husbands and wives equally responsible for earning money and domestic tasks, and equal opportunities policies, state childcare provisions and parental leave mean women are less dependent on their husbands
• Other social policies

  • divorce act - 1969
  • welfare state - 1945
  • gay marriage - 2014
  • civil partnerships - 2004
  • equal pay act - 1970
  • children act - 1973