What is the influence of sociology on social policy? There is no guarantee that findings based on evidence will influence social policy. There are many reasons why this happens. One of the factors is electoral popularity. We can see this with the classifications of cannabis which the policy group wanted to be reclassified as a lower problem. David Blunkett wanted to be seen as tough on drugs and therefore it was not classified as such. Pollution from road vehicles causes around 40,000 deaths a year, according to a cross party report chaired by Tim Yeo. It would be unpopular to tackle this through reducing car usage as was shown by a referendum in Manchester trying to improve public transport which was lost by a margin of two to one. At the …show more content…
The feminist viewpoint would be that generally state policies have benefited men at the expense of women and the policies have perpetuated the subordination of women. They could give examples of this such as the limited number of women in high positions in politics in countries such as the United Kingdom where so far there has been only two female prime ministers the late Lady Thatcher, and Theresa May. There has not been a woman president so far in the United States of America. Critics of this view however suggest that the number of politicians in some countries is much higher including perhaps surprisingly some of the African countries. Feminists would assume that most policies that in the West assume that nuclear families are the normal type of society. It would also point out that if we look at many learning materials they need to prove most positive images of females. They would contrast this to a great deal of the media which concentrates on the physical attributes of women rather than their ability. It was suggested very strongly that teacher training should avoid gender bias and should promote an inclusive …show more content…
They would suggest that in many cases the state system helps the exploitation and little attention has been paid to the exploitation of, for example, children and others receiving very little pay for making footballs and other souvenirs whilst the large-scale football clubs have immense amounts of money especially following the TV coverage provided by organisations such as BT and Sky. According to Marxists, whilst the National Health Service is meant to be there for the people, in reality it simply helps capitalism since it means that workers are fit enough for work which leads to further exploitation. They would also suggest that the state only provides enough resources to prevent revolution. Some Marxists will recognise that social policies have had real benefits to the working class but others will not even recognise this much. Marxists might also point to the amount of research and development within universities which is mainly geared to the needs of capitalism, particularly to the arms firms, but comparatively little research to help the poor, in particular in the Third World countries. For more details see the campaign against the arms trade