Social policies are the plans and actions of government agencies, which aim to address social issues, ranging from poverty to racism. Sociology has been linked to the beginning of social policies, especially in more recent years. For example, the concept of marketisation within the school system in the early 1990’s and the reduction in funding for Higher Education Tuition Fees was influenced by contemporary sociology. Donnison believes that there are four factors that he feels shape social policy. These are changing political agendas, changing circumstances, growing knowledge and new questions. There are different sociological opinions that view the relationship between sociology and social policy differently, which means there is no simple view. For example, social policies are introduced to the belief that they will improve society by tackling social problems: affecting the welfare of the population of the country where the policy is being introduced. However, Feminists and Marxists believe that social policy is not just about improving the welfare of citizens, as they believe it is about social control; deterring rather than helping individuals.

Giddens’ supports Donnison by stating that there are four practical uses of studying sociology. These include: understanding social situations, being aware of cultural differences, assessing the effects of policies and increasing self-knowledge. By understanding social situations, we are able to understand the world around us because we are provided with knowledge and insights. We can understand the world theoretically and factually. Understanding social situations theoretically provides people with an explanation as to why something is happening. For example, sociologist’s uncovered the extent of poverty by devising more sophisticated ways of measuring it. In particular, they brought in a relative deprivation model of poverty, proving that poverty can only be understood in terms of what people normally expect to have in a society – even if this was above the levels of destitution. This new way of defining poverty allowed a new insight into the nature of poverty in rich societies. These indirectly led to policies such as the minimum wage, which made sure everyone had a right to a minimum hourly pay level as well as the New Deal, which enabled lone mothers and lone-parents with dependent children to have great support. Understanding social situations factually provides us with facts, which allows us to form a judgement and develop a theory. For example, a series of reports by Townsend and Mack and Lansley in the 1980s and 1990s showed that poverty remained a huge but hidden problem in Britain, with over 11 million people living in poverty.

Another one of Gidden’s four practical uses is being aware of cultural differences and helping other’s to see multiple viewpoints. This helps them to look beyond their inner circle/groups. A lack of awareness of activities and believes of other groups can lead to prejudice and discrimination. However, with the knowledge that sociology provides, people can respond in an acquainted way. This can be seen as noticeably, governments have recently tackled discrimination within disability and race. For example, disabled people are seven times more likely to be unemployed than the average, and over 50% of families with a disabled male adult were living in poverty. This discrimination both ruins the lives of the people involved and at a political level, costs the government over £100 billion each year in state benefits. Another example being that opinion polls over the past thirty years have shown a consistent decline in expressed racism on the pasty of the majority population. This is one of the contributing factors that have been the growth in understanding the variety of cultures in Britain and the problems that ethnic minorities face. This multicultural Britain awareness has led to the beginning of the Race Equality Legislation, which helps to enforce equality within different races.

Subsequently, Gidden’s believes that if we study sociology we are able to assess the effects of policies. For example, once politicians have recognized that a particular social problem exists, they are then able to develop policies to battle it. If sociological knowledge is used in doing this then the policies adopted may be those that appear to be the most effective in overcoming the problem. However, it is difficult to judge how effective a policy has been, which leads us to another use of sociology – evaluating the effects of a particular policy initiative. Government and policy initiatives are evidence-based in today’s society; when the government provides funding for social projects. This means they need evidence from the people that run the programme to provide clear evidence that there is some sort of benefit coming from that programme. Sociology is the main subject in providing this sort of research into the relevance and effectiveness of policy initiatives. For example, the NHS have had cost-benefit analyses of healthcare introduced to them. This started from the University of York, where analyses were created to check how effective certain medical procedures were in terms of better quality of life and cost to the NHS. Due to this, the government developed this form of analysis for pharmaceuticals and introduced a National Institute for Clinical Excellence. This pronounces what drugs and procedures the NHS can provide and offer.

Lastly, Giddens suggests that we are able to increase self-knowledge if we study sociology. This is because he believes that it allows people to reflect on their own experiences of life and in doing so, it liberates them. Correspondingly, it enables people to challenge images of themselves (currently stereotyped in the media) and to initiate policies that are more sympathetic to them. Groups with disabilities, ethnic minorities and the feminist and gay movements have benefited greatly from this aspect of sociology. For example, sociological research has demonstrated the extent of discrimination against all these groups and this knowledge has empowered them because they are able to show the results to the government and demand action. As a result of this, it means there have ben anti-discrimination laws put in place. For example, the Equal Pay Act was put in place in 1970, to help prohibit any less favourable treatment between men and women in terms of pay and conditions of employment.

Controversially, some sociologists dispute the ability of sociology to make radical and fundamental changes in society. This may be because they believe that sociologists should be separate and independent from the government or because they are ideologically oppressed to policy making. The relationship between social policy and sociology has been criticised by a number of writers. Colonised means the control or governing influence of a nation over a dependent country, territory or people. In particular, radicals see sociology as having been “colonised” by governments and therefore, its radical potential as having been tamed.

According to Marxists, the fault with much of sociology is that it has become too closely linked with the capitalist system – which to them is the main cause of the social problems and discrimination. Therefore, sociology is not fulfilling its role as being a provider of knowledge that could liberate people, but actually serving the interests of powerful groups who could then impose their wishes in even more sophisticated ways. For example, realist criminologists and critical criminologists, such as Lea and Young, argue that sociological surveys indicate that the people who really suffer from crime are the poor and the powerless. It is therefore the duty of the government to introduce policies to prevent crime occurring against these groups, and to improve the quality of their lives. They should do this by better policing, better social conditions and by tackling the social and economic marginalisation of the young males who commit most street crime. However, extreme Marxists such as Westergaard and Resler are against making social policy recommendations on welfare. They believe that if sociologists such as Townsend encourage more benefits this will only serve to reduce class solidarity. On the contrary, the New Right believe that governments should intervene when it suits their beliefs e.g. social policy initiatives that prop up the traditional nuclear family and legislation, which restricts gypsies rights. The New Right also believe that the state should have minimal involvement in social problems as they criticize the potential role of sociology bringing about positive policies for the good of society.

Like Marxists, Feminists believe that society is based on conflict but in their view, their view is between genders and not classes. They argue that sociologists should remain critical of society. The debate between feminists reflects that between the realist and critical criminologists. Radical and socialist feminists criticize liberal feminists for their research and close ties with the government. Liberal feminists have been content to point out the way in which society discriminates against women in terms of employment, state benefits and within the family. Their aim has to been to introduce anti-discrimination legislation and to change the attitudes of men to women. They would argue that they have largely succeeded in this. For example, the Sex Discrimination Act was put in place in around 1975, which was put there to protect men and women from discrimination on the grounds of sex and marital status. However, radical and socialist feminists argue that this misses the point – the current patriarchal society is actually based on the exploitation of women and therefore only be dismantling It and bringing about fundamental change can women achieve any form of liberation.

Postmodernists such as Bauman take a position, which is radically different from more traditional sociological approaches. They argue that sociology has no contribution to make to policy. Rational and scientific approaches to sociology use surveys or qualitative studies and have often been used by the government to introduce policies. However, postmodernists claim that this is a waste of time; the existence of a manageable society “out there”, that we can understand and then manipulate is a comforting illusion. Therefore, they would argue that there could be no link between sociology and social policies. For postmodernists, the role of sociology is simply to allow people to seek out an understanding of their personal lives.

It is suggested by Positivists that science and rationality would dictate how people saw the world and it would give us a reason to create a better society. For example, Durkheim produced an analysis, which enabled him to propose a meritocratic education system and promote social cohesion through the abolition of inherited wealth. For example, Comte and Durkheim and other Positivists take the view that sociology was a science and would cause them to discover the cause of social problems and scientifically based solutions to them. Along with this, sociologists make the assumption about whether society is unstable or stable. We need to understand that positivism is not value-free due to Gouldner arguing that Durkheim was not value free in his analysis of society. To conclude, sociology has some influence on social policy. However, it varies from government to government. For example, sociology was out of the favour during the Conservative governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major. However, in the person of Giddens, it has had a significant influence on Tony Blair and New Labour. Also, governments tend to select particular perspectives within sociology when forming social policy; radical perspectives rarely influence them. Furthermore, sociology provides a range of ideas and evidence, which can inform social policy. Sociologists often sit on government committees and working parties, which develop social policy. Some are employed by pressure groups such as the Child Poverty Action Group. Finally, not all sociologists are convinced that sociology is not value-free and therefore may not be a reliable source of factual information on which to base policies. Some sociologists claim that the aim of sociology is not just to replace social policies but to bring into question the whole social system.