Welfare - articles review
Uploaded by tanzanianimani on Mar 19, 2002
ABSTRACT
'We're going to support activities that help couples who choose marriage for them selves develop the skills and knowledge to form and sustain a healthy marriage,' said Dr. Horn.
Wade F. horn, an assistant secretary for children and families at the department of health and human services of the bush administration, proposes that the solution to the current Welfare problem would be to direct the $100 million to promoting healthy, two-parent households. The welfare problem he is referring to is that there are a beyond necessary number of people currently depending on welfare benefits. His research involved exposure to opinions of several government officials involved in the social affairs sector. He also suggested that experiments be done aimed at strengthening families and reducing out-of-wedlock births through premarital counselling and marital enrichment classes, the overall aim being to 'figure out what works'. Dr. Horn found it uncomprehendable why people would be against 'helping low income families who choose marriage for themselves access the skills and marriage to build a healthy marriage'. He states that his main concern in promoting marriages is not the marriage itself, rather it's the well being of the children. For some families, the existence of economic distress is the key role player in weak marriages. Alike ninety percent of Americans who either have been married, were married or will be married, low-income people also want to achieve the goal of a healthy marriage.
Dr. horn applied the concept of functionalism to his research. Using the functionalist approach enabled him to efficiently analyse the large-scale structure of welfare. It also enables them to analyse the contribution that this activity (marriage) makes to the continuation of the society as a whole, that is, social reproduction. Functionalist thinking in sociology was originally pioneered by August Komte who saw it as closely bound up with his overall view of the field. August Komte is arguably the founder of 'sociology'. He believed that this new field could produce a knowledge of society based on scientific evidence and therefore earning his credit as functionalist. As a Frenchman he drew up ambitious plans for the reconstruction of French society in particular and for human societies in general based on scientific knowledge.
Another theorist involved with functionalism is Emile Durkheim. He had a much more lasting impact on modern sociology than those of Komte. Durkheim was the one who introduced the concept of social facts, aspects of...