Feminist ideas and domestic violence policy change

Political Studies

Volumn 48, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 239-262

  Abrar, Stefania ^a   Lovenduski, Joni ^a   Margetts, Helen ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

^b School of Public Policy   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; CLASSIFICATION; DOMESTIC VIOLENCE; FEMALE; FEMINISM; HISTORY; HUMAN; LEGAL ASPECT; POLICY; UNITED KINGDOM;

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE; FEMALE; FEMINISM; GREAT BRITAIN; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HUMANS; PUBLIC POLICY;

EID: 0034364936     PISSN: 00323217     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1467-9248.00258     Document Type: Article

References (25)

1. 1 W. Parsons, Public Policy: an Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Policy Analysis. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 1995, p. 201.
2. 2 Some experts object to the use of the term domestic violence when what is really meant is violence to women. Domestic violence is violence in the home and family and may affect any family or household member. Here we use the term in its everyday usage and mean violence to women.
3. 3 S. Brownhill and S. Halford 'Understanding women's involvement in local politics', Political Geography Quarterly, 9, 4 (1990), 396-414.
4. 4 H. Eisenstein, Gender Shock: Practising Feminism on Two Continents. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1985.
5. 5 D. Stetson and A. Mazur, Comparative State Feminism. London: Sage, 1995.
6. 6 S. Watson, Playing the State. London: Verso, 1990.
7. 7 P. Sabatier and H. Jenkins Smith, Policy Change and Learning.Oxford: Westview, 1993, p. 55.
8. 8 Sabatier and Jenkins Smith, Policy Change and Learning, p. 23.
9. 9 G. Majone, Evidence, Argument and Persuasion in the Policy Process. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989; R. Putnam, The Comparative Study of Political Elites. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1976.
10. 9 G. Majone, Evidence, Argument and Persuasion in the Policy Process. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989; R. Putnam, The Comparative Study of Political Elites. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1976.
11. 10 The advocacy coalition framework allows a large number of actors to be clustered together in a policy subsystem. In practice both advocates and brokers have an interest in subsystem maintenance and differences between them are part of a continuum. (Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith, 1993, p. 27) The dynamic of change is policy-oriented learning which includes the incorporation of technical information and the development of strategies to influence public policy. A distinction is made between learning within and learning across coalitions. The former is relatively unproblematic. However, productive debate is relatively unlikely to occur across coalitions because it may lead to the alteration of policy core aspects of a coalition's belief system. Once established, policy is unlikely to be revised so long as the coalition that instituted it remains dominant in the subsystem.
12. 11 L. Kelly, 'Violence Against Women: a Policy of Neglect or a Neglect of Policy', in Sylvia Walby (ed.), New Agendas for Women. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999.
13. 12 Expert interview. The GNUG project conducted over 100 interviews with experts and advocates between 1993 and 1995. By agreement with respondents interviews have been anonymized. Unless otherwise indicated quotations are drawn from interview transcripts.
14. 13 The law allowing the chastisement of wives in Britain was repealed in 1829.
15. 14 E. Malos and G. Hague, Refuges and the Movement Against Domestic Violence. New Clerical Press, 1993, p. 35.
16. 15 L. Smith, Domestic Violence: a Review of the Literature, Home Office Research Study 107. London: HMSO, 1989, p. 42.
17. 16 External instability has characterized the development of domestic violence policy which has taken place over a period of enormous changes both in the patterns of women's lives and in the structure and management of local government. Local government changes led to high levels of staff turnover, unpredictable budgets, changed and reduced statutory functions for local agencies, privatization of traditional public functions etc. Change in London's political system has been particularly dramatic since 1985. Until then London was run by a single strategic authority, the Greater London Council (GLC), while the delivery of services was the responsibility of 33 local councils covering the capital. In 1985 central government abolished the GLC and devolved its authority to the 33 local authorities. Since that time a variety of boards, committees, and offices has been created to deal with London wide issues whilst the boroughs have had to deliver services in their areas while experiencing major restructuring. The rest of British local government has also experienced restructuring which has taken the form of a succession of centrally directed management initiatives in which decentralization, downsizing, job losses, the introduction of purchaser provider splits, privatization and severe budget cuts and loss of areas of autonomy have been characteristic features. These changes greatly affected the framework in which domestic violence policy is made and delivered. As well as changes in urban institutions, agencies are also affected by policy changes on a central level, for example, reforms of the probation service, changes in housing legislation, changing spending priorities. In Radicalton 'right to buy' policy had less impact on women's access to social housing than in many other localities. Where suitable housing stock has been depleted, the council has arrangements with local housing associations to choose tenants for 75 per cent of their housing in exchange for rights to build on local authority land.
18. 17 J. Lovenduski and V. Randall, Contemporary Feminist Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
19. 18 S. Abrar, 'Feminist intervention and local domestic violence policy', Parliamentary Affairs, 49 (1996), 191-205.
20. 19 Malos and Hague, Refuges and the Movement Against Domestic Violence, p. 40.
21. 20 Malos and Hague, Refuges and the Movement against Domestic Violence.
22. 21 J. Bull, Housing Consequence of Relationship Breakdown. Department of the Environment, London: HMSO, 1993.
23. 22 Bull, Housing Consequence of Relationship Breakdown.
24. 23 Abrar, 'Feminist intervention and local domestic violence policy, ' p. 196.
25. 24 No name given in order to preserve the anonymity of Progressiveham.