social policy

• China old child policy

  govts population control policy has aimed to discourage couples from having more than one child. women must seek permission before becoming pregnant, couples who comply get extra benefits.
• Communist Romania family policy

  1980s - communist govt introduced policies to drive up birth rate such as restricting contraception and abortion, made divorce more difficult, lowered legal age of marriage to 15 etc
• Nazi family policy


  1930s, state enco, encouraged a 2 fold policy, racially pure master race etc. policy sought to confide women in kitchen and church to perform their biological role
• democratic societies


  in democratic societies such as in britain, family is a private sphere of life in which govt doesnt intervent
• Functionalism view on social policy

  Fletcher 1996 says that the introduction of health education and housing policies has led to development of a welfare state that supports the family in performing its functions more effectively.

  criticisms: assumes all members of family benefit equally from family policies

  assumes there is a march of progress
• Donzelot: policing the family


  sees policy as a form of state power and control over families, uses Foucalt 1976's concept of surveillance, eg social workers police families - poor families targetted seen as being anti social etc

  Condry 2007 - state seeks to control family life by imposing parenting orders through courts etc

  criticisms: marxists - Donzelot fails to identify who benefits from policies of surveillance (MC)

  Feminists - men are main beneficiaries.
• new right perspective on social policy

  changes in policy have led to greater family diversity which has threatened the conventional nuclear family, and producing problems such as crime and welfare dependency.

  Almond 2006 - laws making divorce easier undermine marriage

  civil partnership act and gay marriage act sends a message that state no longer sees heteros as superior

  tax laws discriminate against nuclear families, tend to pay more than dual earner couples each of whom has a tax allowance.
• lone parents, welfare policy, dependency culture

  Murray 1984 argues that welfare policies offers a preserve incentive

  fathers see that state will maintain their child - so they abandon their responsibilities to their families

  council housing for unmarried teenage mothers encourages teen pregnancy

  growth of lone parent families encouraged by benefits, boys grow up with lack of male role models and authority figure.
• new rights solution


  policy must be changed with cuts in welfare spending and tighter restrictions on who is eligible for benefits. eg cutting benefits means taxes reduced giving fathers more incentive to provide for families.
• evaluation of new right

  feminists - its an attempt to justify a return to traditional patriarchal nuclear family that subordinated women to men

  Abbot and Wallace 1992 - cutting benefits would drive poor families into even greater poverty

  NR ignore many policies that support and maintain conventional nuclear family
• NR influence on policies Tory Govt 1979-97


  Thatchers govt banned promotion of homosexuality.

  also defined divorce as a social problem and emphasised parents should be responsible for their children after divorce.
• Nr Influence on New labour 97-2010


  NL emphasised the need for parents to take responsibility for children eg Parenting Orders for parents of truants n young offenders

  NL policies favoured duel earner neo conventional family

  • longer maternity leave, 3 months unpaid leave for both parents
  • working families tax credits
  • new deal helping lone parents to return to work

  but diff bc

  -civil partnership for same sex couples

  • giving unmarried couples same rights to adopt as married ones
  • outlawing discrimination on grounds of sexuality
• coalition govt 2010-2015


  coalition failed to introduce policies that promote new right values eg Browne 2012 found that 2 parent families w children fared particularly badly as a result of coalition tax and benefit policies.
• feminism policy as as self fulifilling prophecy

  Land 1978 social policies assume that the ideal family is the patriarchal nuclear family with a male provider, female home maker and dependent children.

  policies create self fulfilling prophecy eg state assumes normal fams based on marriage, thereby offering them tax incentives for married ppl, not available to cohabiting couples, encourages marriage and discourages cohabitation.
• policies supporting patriarchal family


  tax n benefits - may assume husbands are main wage earners, makes it impossible for wives to claim benefits in their own right as its expected that man provides

  childcare - childcare expensive, not enough for parents to work full time, means women restricted from working hence economically dependent.

  care for sick n elderly - govt policies assumes that family provide this care Leonard 1978 - even where policies seem to support women, still reinforces patriarchy eg maternity leave, n maternity benefits being low etc
• evaluation of feminist view


  not all policies directed at maintaing patriarchy eg equal pay n sex discrimination laws.
• gender regimes


  Drew 1995

  familistic GR - where policies based on traditional gender divison between male breadweinner and female housewife eg in greece little state welfare, women dependent

  individualistic GR - policies based on belief that hubby n wife treated the same, women not dependent so each partner has a seperate entitlement to benefits.