Evaluate: Sociological Arguments Have Little Influence on the Social Polices of Governments.
Summary:
A social policy is usually established by the government and affects some or all sections of society. Social policies are designed by the government to meet the perceived needs of the people. There is evidence to suggest that the government is ignoring some sociological research, however there is also evidence to support that research does influence the government.
Evaluate the view that sociological arguments and research findings generally have little influence on the social polices of governments.
Social policies are a set of rules or actions which govern the way we behave and act, that are also supposed to be in our interest. A social policy is usually established by the government and affects some or all sections of society. Social policies are designed by the government to meet the welfare needs, such as housing, health, education, transport and communication of all its citizens. One policy that will be shortly commencing is one that deals with the financing of higher education in the form of payment fees and loans. Other policies on education have been established by passing laws such as the Education Act 1944 and the Education Reform Act 1988 and introducing the National Curriculum.
Not only do the governments pass social policies and have a say as to what issue they should create one about, judges may be involved in the formulation of social policy too. For example, it was a European Court decision in 1986 which gave married daughters the right to claim benefits to help them care for their elderly parents. A second way of passing/creating a policy is the governments way of pursuing policies without actually passing laws. They do this by making statements in Parliament, giving interviews to the media and so on. An example of this is provided by the last Conservative government's failed 'Back to basics' policy, which was supposed to bring back the ideal Victorian model of family.
Not all policies are for the good of the people, even though the government argues that they are. Evidence may be shown to the government but have little impact on its decisions on policies. In 1976 a mother living with her lover in a lesbian relationship sought custody of her 5-year-old son. The mother had been separated from her husband for 2 years at the time of the hearing and the child had lived with her and her lover for that time. After the hearing lasting 6 days the mother lost custody of her son. The government was more concerned about how the child was going to be socialised and its sexual behaviour rather than the behaviour of the couple. The reason for this stemmed from the policies during the 60's and 70's that promoted the 'ideal' nuclear family.
Another piece of research that should have been taken into account by the government is researches by Peter Townsend, a government advisor, who belongs to the Royal Poverty Commission, advised the government that they need to get rid poverty by passing new laws and destroying the old ones, but the government only fine tunes the existing policies, but doesn't actually get rid of poverty.
Another policy passed to improve education was the National Curriculum, this was introduced to achieve greater equality, but this doesn't succeed as all schools have different amounts of money, therefore have different opportunities and limitations. There has been research and evidence to show this yet the government will not be influenced by these findings. Many sociologists argue that the government should pass polices which lead to greater equality, instead of just rearranging the existing ones.
Sociological arguments also have little influence on the social policies of governments. The main arguments are between Functionalists and Marxists.
Functionalism a descriptive view is right wing and conservative in political terms, based on religious values and supports the nuclear family type. Functionalist also believe in the status quo and the meritocratic system. Therefore this perspective doesn't believe in conflict therefore if there is not conflict nothing needs to change.
On the other hand Marxism a radical view is based on conflict, inequality and exploitation, there is a large gap between rich and poor as there are no equal opportunities and the goal in life is to make a profit. They believe the class system supports the status quo as does the education system. Marxism aims for a complete change of the system. Karl Marx argued that this radical system doesn't work so the government need to change the system to a communist view so it would lead to a redistribution of wealth. This would benefit global issues such as poverty in other countries. Once again the government does not take into account any of these views as nothing in favour of functionalism or Marxism had been done.
Although policies such as the Children Act 1989 and the Child Support Act 1992 help families with children a great deal and the government actually passed these polices with the influence of sociological research. So not all arguments and research findings go to waste on the government.
In conclusion, there is evidence to suggest that the government is ignoring some sociological research, however there is also evidence to support that research does influence the government. Throughout history there has been many laws and policies passed some beneficial and some not, but all policies were created for a reason that a majority must have thought was beneficial even if there was no sociological research to support it.
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