HDFS 4052 Midterm Exam

Written 7 question exam with Dr. Plauche

How do families support society?

1. families are a fundamental foundation for generating productive workers

2. Families contribute to raising and caring of committed citizens

3. families are an effective means for achieving policy and program goals

4. families are an efficient means for achieving policy and program goals

5. families are a normative ideal that benefits policymaking by fostering political consensus and the finding of common ground

staying informed, community and political participation, respect for others, empathy and contribution to the common good, and transparency and accountability

What are five common characteristics when citizens engage?

• field is broad and amorphous

• short history of family policy in the US in comparison to other countries

• families are a political image and are exploited by politics for nonfamily purposes

• there are too many definitions of family and family policy

Why had defining family policy been so difficult?

family formation, partner relationships, economic support, childrearing, and caregiving

If a policy is defined as a family policy, what ends should it target?

What is a “low-information voter” – and we can expand this to ask, what is a low-information citizen? What is the nature of the relationship between citizen illiteracy, especially on policy related matters, and contempt for experts and expertise? What are the dangers when citizens are not only functionally illiterate about policy and social issues, but willfully or gleefully so? Why is “common sense” not enough when dealing with complex policy matters?

A low-information voter is someone who believes that every opinion has the same value as fact and to disagree with other’s opinions is to insult them. Consequently, a low-information citizen would state that all public policy, political views, and forms of news all have a place within the society and cannot be corrected. However, this form of citizen would effectively undermine the need for the experts especially within policy related matters. By saying that all opinions must be treated as fact, essentially asserts that everyday people are now experts in any field they choose to have an opinion on. Everyday people being considered experts then erodes the relationship between experts and citizens because the trust in experts is dissolved. Everyday people have the same level of trust to inform policy or other facets of life. When citizens are not literate on policy, they can be vulnerable to predatory practices of opportunistic politicians who receive the same trust as experts without same level of knowledge. Once this occurs, people can be manipulated into voting for the fictious experts who will erode the policies that benefit everyone for their own gain. Without being able to rely on experts, the fields may eventually disappear, making scientific advancement and trustworthy advice extinct from modern society. Common sense is not good enough for making public policy because not everything is common sense. Common sense is subjective. There have been scientific discoveries because the discovery itself opposed what was commonly known. When it comes to complex policies, there needs to be more concrete evidence that an idea will work than just what we believe will work. Our beliefs are not always completely correct and subject to our own biases; therefore, we must put our trust in the experts and their specialized knowledge to inform policy.

they state that all public policy, political views, and forms of news all have a place within society and cannot be corrected

What is a low-information citizen?

someone who believes that every opinion has the same value as fact and to disagree with other’s opinions is to insult them

What is a low-information voter?

1. political skepticism about the role of government in family life

2. rapid demographic changes that have occurred within contemporary families

3. social, economic, and racial/ethnic inequalities across contemporary families

4. cultural tensions between individual rights and family responsibilities

5. inadequate preparation of professionals to engage in evidence-based family policymaking

What are the five dominant forces responsible for the marginalization of families in policymaking?

• private value of the functions that families provide for their members

• does the public policy help families better fulfill their private functions

• what effects policies or programs have on family members

• does it strengthen or empower families

What are the primary reasons that professionals are interested in family policy?

• public value of the functions families perform for larger society

• fairly and efficiently allocate public resources to improve the economic and social health of society

• main purpose is to benefit the larger society

• what contributions families make to society, how effectively and efficiently they do so, and how costly it is if they fail to

What are the primary reasons that policymakers are interested in family policy?

1. families are a fundamental foundation for generating productive workers

2. Families contribute to raising and caring of committed citizens

3. families are an effective means for achieving policy and program goals

4. families are an efficient means for achieving policy and program goals

5. families are a normative ideal that benefits policymaking by fostering political consensus and the finding of common ground

What are the five key reasons that family policy should be a subfield of social policy?

in a 30-year longitudinal study in the United States, Sroufe et al. (2005) were able to predict which children would drop out of school with 77% accuracy using only one variable—quality of care up to age 42 months. Results even greater when parents were neglectful or disengaged.

What is an example of families being a fundamental foundation for generating productive workers?

The quality of caregiving at age 3½ was found to predict the quality of romantic relationships over two decades later at ages 23 and 26.

What is an example of families contribute to the raising of caring, committed citizens?

To prevent youth substance use, Italian researchers adapted Botvin’s LifeSkills training program by incorporating dialogue to improve relationships between parents and their children, and between teachers and students. The evaluation revealed that substance use could be prevented without much discussion about drugs. Instead, it was more important for pre-adolescents to develop the capacity to dialogue with and listen to parents which, in turn, helped them better resist group peer pressure

What is an example of the family as an effective means for achieving policy and program goals?

Researchers also have examined the cost-effectiveness of specific early childhood education programs. One flagship example is the Perry Preschool Program, which included a daily, high-quality preschool program for low-income 3- and 4-year-olds, frequent home visits to mothers, and monthly small group meetings. At age 40, this program increased the percentage of participants who had graduated from high school, owned their own home, were employed, and had a median annual income of more than $20,000. For every public dollar invested in the program, $12.90 was returned to society. Came from crime savings. 

What is an example of the family as an efficient means for achieving policy and program goals?

In an average week, family words and images were invoked 218 times, making their way into one-third of all speeches, statements, tributes, and so forth. Importantly, the mention of family did not vary by gender or political part.

What is an example of the family is a normative ideal that benefits policymaking by fostering political consensus and the finding of common ground?

• family and kin

• faith-based organization

• employers and workplace

• marketplace

• charitable and philanthropic organizations

• government

List and describe/discuss the major institutions or entities, public and private, through which social welfare is delivered in American society.

• help people maintain a basic level of economic security in the face of uncertainty or social contingencies

• help people achieve basic level of material sufficiency

• help citizens gain access to fundamental goods and services without regard to socio-economic status or class

What core principles are the foundation of social welfare in American society?

a plan or a course of action carried out through a law, rule, code, or other mechanism in the public or private sectors

What is the definition of policy?

any policy that directly affects family outcomes such as the various functions and responsibilities that families perform for the well-being of their members and society, including family formation, partner relationships, economic support, childrearing, and caregiving

What is the definition of family policy?

an identifiable course of action hammered out in the political arena to maximize the satisfaction of relevant interest groups in society and to improve the general welfare

What is the definition of public policy?

social welfare

What are the direct expenditures made by the government on public goods and services?

policies that directly attempt to improve the quality of life for individuals in domains such as crime, education, health, housing, and welfare

What is the definition of social policy?

• in policy circles, social issues are those that policymakers find are the most contentious and partisan

everything people do when they live in a community and work through disagreements toward a common purpose for the way society develops

What is the definition of politics?

is defined as how what is enacted is interpreted and applied, and whether it is consistent with the Constitution and previous legal decisions

What is the definition of family law?

executive, legislative, and judicial

What are the three branches of government?

John Roberts, Sonia Sotomayor, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney-Barrett, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Ketanji Brown Jackson

Who are the nine supreme court justices?

John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy

Who are Louisiana’s state senators?

Steve Scalise, Troy Carter, Clay Higgins, Mike Johnson, Julia Letlow, and Cleo Fields

Louisiana receives 6 representatives in the House of Representatives. Who are they? (In order of district 1-6).

• District 6 includes Baton Rouge

• District 2 includes New Orleans

executive branch

What branch is this?

• consists of

  • president → commander and chief of the military

  • vice president

  • presidential cabinet

    • 15 executive departments

      • employs more than 4 million people

      • includes their agencies

      • focus on the day-to-day enforcement and administration of federal laws

  • Other Cabinet level positions

• role

  • implementing and enforcing the laws written by congress

  • appoints heads of federal agencies, ambassadors, and federal judges

  • writes executive orders

  • checks the power of the legislative branch by vetoing or passing laws

judicial branch

What branch of government is this?

• 9 Supreme Court justices

• consists of district courts, appellate courts, and the Supreme Court

• jobs

  • interpret the laws

  • determining constitutionality

  • settling legal disputes

  • protecting rights: determines if things are constitutional or not

  • providing checks and balances: reviews legal actions of executive branch and laws of the legislative branch

legislative branch

What branch is this?

• 435 voting members distributed to each state proportionally by population

• 100 voting members distributed two per state

  • members elected directly by US citizens

• roles

  • make laws

  • declare war

  • set budget

  • oversee executive branch

    • conduct investigations

    • confirm presidential nominations for federal positions

  • impeaching

problem identification and agenda setting

At what stage of the pubic policy making process does this occur?

• a problem is identified by the public, policy actors, media, socio-economic conditions, and the political culture at the time

• The policy actors, like legislators, lobbyists, and courts, decide which problems they will act on and how they will frame the public’s view of the problem.

• decide if they will act on it or not

formulation and adoption

At what stage of the public policy making process does this occur?

• policymakers will look at multiple alternative solutions to the issue and may consult experts to inform them of what their action will be

• this stage is highly influenced by the policymaker’s values, culture, public opinion, media, and research groups

• Policymakers will evaluate each proposal by its soundness, political acceptability, and cost to the budget

• Adoption occurs as the final decision of the policymakers in the form of laws, effectively creating the public policy

implementation

What stage of the public policy making process is this?

• begins through the bureaucracy developing rules and regulations to carry out the program in support of the public policy

• involves a lot of discretion by the bureaucracy

• fills the gap of the creation of the law and how it impacts the public’s daily lives, but it comes with many concerns like staffing, resources, hearings and investigations, legal action, and how the agencies are running

evaluation

What stage of the public policy making process is this?

• the content, implementation, goal attainment, and the effects of the public policy are assessed through statistics, policy outputs, and policy outcomes.

• There is a lot of difficulty in acquiring the data or systematic observations of public policy due to all of the actors involved, finding a consistent form of measurement, and finding every area that a policy impacts.

• Based on this, the process could start all over again or changes can be made to improve the policy.

1. problem identification and agenda setting

2. formulation and adoption

3. implementation

4. evaluation

What are the stages of the policy process?