The Two Faces of Policy

The purpose of this study is to characterize the recent reforms in divorce laws in a number of Western democratic countries, including, the United States Canada Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and Italy. Various types of policy are discussed with emphasis on the extent to which they are effective in achieving stated goals of family stability. The pattern of government involvement in divorce is reviewed and alternative policies for reform are described. The comparison of the statutes that have recently been revised indicates that although governments formally seek to maintain standards of marital stability, none provides effective means for state action to assist in achieving the goal. Although reforms have different provisions of procedures (no fault, breakdown, expanded fault grounds), the effect is the same: a couple who desires a divorce can obtain one, and the government has no power to prevent the breakup. Several reasons for the gap between public goals and private action in the area of divorce are discussed as they pertain to the various countries studied: (1) influence of raligious pressure groups; (2) lack of adequate knowledge of family patterns among legislators ; (3) weak mobilization of interests in support of adequate government regulation or services to maintain family stability. The conclusion of the paper relates the findings about divorce reform to the larger matter of policy capabilities. The situation with regard to divorce reform is an example of the gap between real policy output (divorce by consent) and symbolic pol icy output (marital stability). The findings represent an interesting reversal of the Edelman thesis that real policy output benefits organized interests while the people receive mostly symbolic output. In the case of divorce policy, the symbolic output satisfies interest groups, especially religious groups, and the real output answers needs of married couples for access to divorce

Democracy · Economics · Government (linguistics) · Political science · Politics · Public policy · State (computer science) · Statute · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Law

• Selected Essays in Family Law

  John L Thomas•The American Catholic Sociological…•1951

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