SCLY1 Families and Households Social Policy

Using material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the impact of state policies and laws on family life. (24 Marks)

Social policies are the plans and actions of government agencies, usually informed by the law of the state. As mentioned in the item, state policies such as China’s one child policy often have a positive or negative impact on family life. Also, as stated in the item, this particular policy offers incentives such as lower taxes and preferential treatment which could impact family life positively as it will reduce living costs to leave the family in a stronger economic position. However, the possible negative impact of this policy on the family are also significant, with the rise of forced abortions which cause long-term psychological issues and trauma for its members.
Functionalist sociologists overlook the negative impact that state policies have the family, as they only see the state and its’ policies as serving the interests of the nuclear family. In particular, functionalist sociologist Fletcher argues that social policies help the nuclear family perform its functions. For example, he would argue that the policy of compulsory schooling would help fulfil Parsons’ function of primary socialisation. Overall, for functionalists, educational policies such as these would have a positive impact for family life as children are able to receive adequate, professional education and personality development at school, leaving parents free to go out to work to fulfil the economic needs of the family at the same time.
However, though the New Right agree with functionalists about the importance of the functions of the nuclear family, they would disagree with the functionalist outlook on state policies having a positive effect on family life. Instead, New Right thinkers such as Murray argue that state policies encourage nuclear families to deviate away from its’ established norms by offering perverse incentives, or rewards for irresponsible behaviour. For example, the policy of providing council houses for unmarried teenage mothers encourages young women to become pregnant at a young age and out of wedlock. For Murray, policies such as these have a particularly negative impact on family life as it undermines the family’s ‘natural’ self-reliance and promotes dependence, as mentioned in the item. Family members are likely to rely on welfare to look after their children instead of taking responsibility themselves, which may cause social problems in the future.
Feminist sociologists disagree entirely with New Right thinkers, who they feel are gender blind in their assessment of the roles of the nuclear family and the impact that state policies have on family life. Rather, as mentioned in the item, feminist sociologists argue that social policies maintain the subordination of women and children by reinforcing patriarchal ideology within the family. For example, even policies which appear to benefit women, such as extended maternity leave, still encourage patriarchy by encouraging the assumption that women are the only natural carers of new born babies. For radical feminists especially, policies such as these have a negative impact on women in family life as it maintains the status quo of the male’s sexual, physical and emotional dominance over her.
Like feminists, Marxists also hold a conflict view of state policies on family life and are in agreement that policies exist to maintain ideology. However, they deviate by arguing that social policies spread and maintain capitalist ideology by acting as a smokescreen to mask the true nature of the exploitation of the proletariat. For instance, policies such as child benefit which appear to serve the interests of the poor actually serve the bourgeoisie, in this case maintaining proletariat children who will one day make up part of the workforce at the lowest possible cost. As a result, for Marxists, state policies can only have a negative impact on family life as it maintains the false class consciousness of family members, keeping them poor, alienated and frustrated in the capitalist system.
Functionalists would argue that the Marxist view on social policy is too negative. However, like Marxists, Donzelot argues that social policies can have a particularly negative impact on family life. He argues that policies allow professionals to conduct surveillance upon, or police family life to regulate and change it. To illustrate this point, one could use an example of social workers, who are given power by policies to watch families closely and remove children from the care of their family. Donzelot would argue that such policies can have a negative impact on family life as it can leave families powerless to stop the breakdown of their family unit against the superior ‘knowledge’ of the professions.
To conclude, it could be argued that the impact of state policies on family life are significant. Conflict theories in particular would argue that state policies persecute members of the family through the spread of ideologies, whereas consensus theories take a more positive view. However, it could be suggested that the most relevant arguments are that of the New Right as the current Conservative government have recently advocated their views by significantly cutting benefits in an effort to reduce the deficit and to reduce the culture of dependency. However, whether this will be successful is yet to be seen.