In socialism the government owns the resources. The United States is capitalist, for example, and Norway is socialist. Capitalism and socialism have different approach to producing and to distributing goods but represent opposing belief system. Both the products and prices should be determined by the market forces, that’s
Louise Garfitt Assess the contribution of Functionalism to our understanding of families and households. In this essay I will be assessing the contributions of Functionalism to our understanding of families and households. Functionalism has made several contributions to our understanding of families and households. Functionalists see the family as an important step in society. For example, George Peter Murdock (1949) argues that the family performs four essential functions to meet the need of society and its members, these are: Stable satisfaction of the sex drive, sex with the same partner will prevent social disruption in the family which will keep the family together.
A weakness in this argument is that it can be seen that functionalists adopt too much of an idyllic view of the family, an example being it ignores dysfunctional families such as abusive relationships. Murdoch (1949) identified four main functions of the family: the sexual, reproductive, economic and educational. These four functions cover the role of family in society. The sexual and reproductive functions are essential for the survival of humankind. The economic function is the parent’s responsibility to take care of the family financially, usually for functionalists through the sexual division of labour where the man will take the role as the breadwinner and the woman will adopt the expressive role and take care of the home and children due to her nurturing instinct.
Karl Marx believed that the means, relations, and mode of production all relate to the inequality in a capitalist society. What he is talking about when he says means of production in society are physical non-human inputs used to produce goods. A means of production could be a natural resource or it could also be technology. Whoever controls the means of production is going to have the most power. The capitalist owned the means of production in capitalism and therefore basically were able to control the economy.
Believers and people who practice both socialism and capitalism have heavy criticism of each other. Socialists for example believe that Capitalists produce a system where there is a clear distinction among the rich and the poor. The system is believed to encourage exploitation of workers, so that the business owners become wealthy. These business owners are the ones in many cases who influence policies, by using their wealth to getting what they want, by funding political campaigns, for example. Capitalists, on the other hand, believe that Socialists deny people their basic rights of freedom of decisions and opportunities.
Asses the Marxist view that the main role of the family is to serve the interests of capitalism. The Marxist view is just one of many perspectives of the main role of the family. They believe that the family serves the interests of capitalism and the Bourgeoisie, and helps to maintain class equality. They also belie that the family model allows for the main provider (the man) to go out to work where the middle class take advantage of their labour. This idea is at odds with the functionalists view that the family benefits society and the family members.
Functionalists believe that it is functional in all families however they do not consider the darker side such as, domestic violence, neglect, which can drastically affect the educational function of the family as the child is not learning in a safe environment. Others would argue that many of the educational functions of family have been taken over by school, college and universities. This indicates that the majority of learned education does not come from the family though there are exceptions to this e.g. Home schooling. The economic functions of a family are important for society.
Capitalism vs. Communism People may flourish or dwindle in a certain environment. I believe people perform differently in a capitalist economy than in a communist economy. Capitalism, an economy run by the people gives authority and responsibility, while communism, an economy run by the government, takes away civil rights and lacks effectivity and productivity. Capitalism Capitalism is an economic and political system where economy production is controlled by private owners and consumers instead of the government.
Using material from item A and elsewhere, assess the contribution of functionalism to our understand of families and households. Functionalists believe that society is based on shared values and a mutual understanding of these vaules, this is a set of shared ‘norms’ such as; wearing clothes in public, not eating with your mouth open etc into which society socialises its young. This means society can work harmoniously and meet its needs and goals. Functionalists believe that the family is regarded as a basic building block of society. Murdoch (1949) argues that the family performs four essential functions to meet the needs of society and its members.
The ‘reproductive' function relates to bearing and raising children. The family provides the society with new members and maintains a populated society, thereby ensuring the continuation of society over time. The ‘educational' (socialisation) function refers to the responsibility the family has to transmit norms and values to the younger members. This function is important as without culture, the society could not survive, and too much deviation from the norm would disrupt the stability of the society. The family is also an ‘economic' unit as it provides necessities such as food, shelter and a new