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Social policy & family - Coggle Diagram
Social policy & family
Marxist
Summary - the bourgeoise use it in their advantage to keep the unequal system and keep families relying on capitalism
Key points:
- state represents the ruling class & its social policies serve interests of capitalism
- maintain labour force for exploitation, prevents revolution, gains they have treated by capitalism
- token gestures
- only solution is revolution
- sociologists should criticise social policy
Criticisms:
- view of social policy & sociologists is impractical & unrealistic
- social democrats criticise marxists for rejecting the idea sociological research can bring progressive policies within existing system
More info:
- social policies hide capitalist exploitation e.g. welfare gives capitalism a 'human face'
- social policies maintain the labour force for exploitation e.g. NHS
- social policies are a means of preventing revolution e.g. welfare state intro after WW2 to buy off W/C opposition to capitalism
- social policies sometimes provide real, if limited, games to W/C but these are threatened by instability of capitalism e.g. austerity cuts
- capitalist state puts capitalism before human needs
- sociologists need to reveal exploitation that underpins capitalism
Feminist
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Key points:
- social policies assume ideal family is patriarchal & uphold this e.g. tax & benefit policies assume women are economically dependent on men
Criticisms:
- not all policies are directed at maintaining patriarchy e.g. equal pay laws
More info:
- feminists like Hilary Land argue social policies assume the ideal family is traditional nuclear family, makes it hard for other family types
- impossible for wives to claim social security benefits in their own right as it is expected their husband will provide, reinforces womens dependence on husband
- government doesnt pay enough for childcare
- care for sick & elderly, policies assume family will care
- Diana Leonard, even when policies appear to help women, they still enforce patriarchy & act as a social contract over women e.g. maternity leave more generous than paternity
The New Right
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Key points:
- strongly favour nuclear family with steerage roles
- the CNF is capable of caring & providing for its members, policies take away from this
- Charles Murray argues against generous welfare, it encourages deviance & dysfunctional family types
Criticisms:
- other family types positive (feminist, marxist); cannot assume nuclear family neutral
Solution:
- cut welfare spending
- tighten restrictions on who is eligible for benefits
- deny council housing to unmarried teen mums
- introduce tax policies that favour married couples
- make absent fathers financially responsbile for their children
Donzelot
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Key points:
- thinks the state controls / policies the family through policies
- concept of surveillance, not targeted equally on all social classes e.g. poor family targeted as cause of crime
Criticisms:
- marxists & feminists criticise Donzelot for failing to identify who benefits from such policies (capitalist class / men)
Functionalist
Summary - it is like the doctor prescribing society medicines and so is good for society and the family
Key points:
- policies to help families perform their functions more efficiently
- organic analogy
- gov is like a doctor that diagnoses problems & prescribes medicines (social policies)
Criticisms:
- it assumes all members of the family benefit equally (feminists say otherwise)
- it assumes there is a march of progress (policies are always improving, but some reverse progress e.g. welfare cuts)
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Social policy in Britian
Conservative 1979-1997:
- Section 28 of Local Government Act 1988: banned promotion of homosexuality, including teaching of it in schools
- Child Support Agency: too many benefits going to single parents, collect money from parents who do not live with children to give to parent with custody (ineffective, >1/4 payments wrongfully calculated, financial trouble for parents)
- Right to Buy, right to buy their own council homes (decrease in social housing, many not meet mortgage payments, massive increase in house prices)
- introduced law making divorce easier
- introduced law giving more rights to children born outside of marriage
New Labour 1997-2010:
- Parenting orders: parents of truanting & offending children/teens forced to have more guidance & councilling
- longer maternity leave & paid paternity leave for 2 weeks
- The New Deal: £5B funded scheme to offer training, education and employment for unemployed
- Civil Partnership Act (2005)
- Adoption and Childrens Act (2002): same-sex couples, unmarried couples and single people to adopt children
- National Minimum Wage 1998
- Working Family Tax Credits / Child Tax Credits (reduced child poverty 25%)
- Human Rights Act 1998
- Childcare Act 2006: local councils must make sure enough child care places
- Sure Start Centres for pre-school children
Coalition 2010-2015:
- 2015 Shared Parental Leave
- Same-sex Marriage 2014
- Stricter immigration rules (British citizen can only bring partner to UK if they earn >£18,600)
- Cuts to Sure Start Centres funding
- Child benefit withdraw for 3rd or additional children
- £450B program for a targeted group of 'problem families'
- real term spending per child up to sixth form reduced
- reduced funding to local authorities, otherwise known as austerity measures
- Free part time childcare for the most disadvantaged 20% of 2 year olds
- Child Tax credits and Child Benefit payments were frozen in cash terms and a tightening on who was eligible for them
Policies since 2015:
- 2015, shared parental leave
- 2016, lower benefit cap (£20,000 from £26,000)
- 2017, 2 child limit on tax credits
- 2017, 30 hours free childcare for 3&4 year olds
Comparisons:
- very different to some other countries
- Swedish childcare, all children entitled to a place within 4 months of registering with a preschool, parental leave for 480 days, frees low due to Maxi tax, costs around £140 a month with all meals included
- UK childcare costs around £125 a week, higher in london
- UK offers 6 weeks leave at 90% of pay and 33 weeks at lower rate
- UK comes bottom third for parental leave
- only 1% in UK used parental leave
- half of women in England & Wales remained childless by their 30th birthday (2020)
- in 1963, fertility rate 2.93 since 2019 it was 1.65 and falling (mainly high due to immigration)
Social democrats
Summary - we should have universal benefits for all which ensure every individual has a safety net to fall back on
Key points:
- welfare state provides high degree of autonomy
- charging high taxes, the state can provide support, financially & via services
- people can solve personal problems better as less focused on market, have a safety net
- capitalism but problems (e.g. unemployment) solved
Criticisms:
- marxists agree with social democrats that social problems are deep rooted, criticise idea that policies are as far reaching as proposed by Townsend & Wilknson claim
More info:
- welfare state is based on the principle of universalism, granting access to benefits & service based on citizenship
- welfare state provide a relatively high degree of autonomy, limiting relevance of family on the market
- with higher taxes the state can provide lots of support, so people less reliant on economy success, solve personal probelms
- social policies are "policies against the market"
- social democratic states are Norway, Sweden etc
Townsend and Wilkinson:
social democrats
- Wilkinson argues UK one of the most unequal societies in the world and this causes social problems e.g. divorce
- Townsend says social policies should be introduced by the UK gov to re-distribute wealth and income from rich to poor for fairer society
- increase welfare benefit & more public spending
Left realists:
representation of social democratic ideals in criminology
- must take causes of crime rather than its symptoms e.g. poverty
- Perry pre-school project
Labelling:
also a social democratic approach