LAW AND SOCIAL CHANGE

LAW AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Law as an instrument of social change

Law brings about social change both directly and indirectly. In many cases law interacts directly with social institutions and brings about obvious changes Law, all over the world, from time immemorial has been used as a vessel for social change. It is the most potent element that regulates the affairs of man. Indeed it is the state, responsible for law enforcement that enjoys the monopoly on the legitimate use of instruments of organized violence- coercion

Law as a tool of popular struggles and mass revolution: The conversion of states could not have been accomplished except by means of explicit legal decree buttressed by the doctrine of imperial sovereignty. Law, far from being a reflection of social reality, is a powerful means of accomplishing reality – that is, of modeling it. Law and especially legislation is a vehicle through which a programmed social evolution can be brought about.

History is replete with other great men like V. I. Lenin of the Soviet Union, Fidel Castro of Cuba, Mahatma Gandhi of India and Nelson Mandela of South Africa who employed their professional calling as legal practitioners as an effective tool of social engineering. These men paid dearly with their resources, freedom and in some cases, their precious lives, in their pursuit of "the learned act in the spirit of public service," which according to Roscoe Pound is the primary purpose of the noble profession of Law. V. I. Lenin succeeded in making enormous changes in society by the use of law. Indeed the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 marked the transition from traditional tsarist regime to modern state while engendering sweeping changes in the USSR polity. This bloody revolution, after many years of struggle and turbulence, depended on the law to effect social change in the social formation of the Soviet society.

As a vessel of social engineering, Every culture is dynamic. Perhaps change is the only permanent thing. Law promotes social justice, decorum, as well as maintenance of social equilibrium. Law has no alternative or subsidiary as such in its social engineering role. It is either it does it or leaves the society to suffer and perish. The developed countries of the world are what they are today because they discovered early enough that law should be their vessel of social engineering and this approach has led to the liberation of their countries and various citizens. Africa remains backward among the list of continents of the world because of its disdain and disrespect for law, as most of the countries of the continent flagrantly refused and still continue to refuse to use law as the metaphor for social rehabilitation.

This paper pleads with every tier of government in Kenya that henceforth, we should subscribe to the League of Nations and governments that use law and see it as a vessel for social engineering. Man becomes man because he has been created by the Creator, but remains relevant if and only if he lives within an environment that is governed by law and is under the government that allows law to guide and revolutionize the society, the governors and the governed inclusive. Put succinctly, Kenya can only take the necessary leap forward in every area of human endeavor, be it educational improvement, infrastructural development, political and democratic enhancement, economic growth. Law is the propeller and bedrock for any form of advancement.

The first Moi regime was accused of personalizing political power from the center by blocking reforms and openness. The doyen of opposition politics in Kenya, Oginga Odinga warned that Kenya risked forfeiting its rightful place in the community of nations if it became averse to change and modernization. Yet a powerful clique of the so called KANU hawks had monopolized access to gate-keeping in power to the extent that it became difficult to initiate change in the political society. As a result Kenyan economic growth read negative leading to underdevelopment and backwardness in the nation.

Law as an instrument of maintenance of status quo: Yet the rule of law demands that laws be stable and not changing too often; any change should take effect in the future. the presence of stable law brings peace, orderliness, good brotherhood and neighbor-hood, as well as good government and governance, whereas the absence of it brings anarchy and chaos as envisaged by Thomas Hobbes’, human nature is necessarily bad in the state of nature hence the need of law to sanction human behavior. Everyone wants to have his own way but at the same time we cannot have our own way because we live in society with others.

It is the duty of the law to reform and modernize society in terms of social, political and economic development path for the lack of reform is disastrous for societal existence. Through the principles that law has bred over the years, it has curbed the excesses of emperors, kings and tyrants alike. It is the law that survives and outlives all of them and not them surviving law. Experience in Africa shows that incumbent, bad elected leaders use their resources and corruption to get elected to office. Once in power they change laws to selfishly suit their interests such that it becomes difficult even to question them or remove them from power. Leaders hijack and turn a noble instrument in society- the law- to serve as weapons of wielding domination, oppression, exploitation and humiliation. Leaders in Africa only know one thing ‘it is our turn to eat’. Therefore, the society’s progress stalls or worse still it regresses and goes out of existence!

In Kenya, a clique of powerful individuals around the then president Kibaki engineered a stern anti-reformist stance. The Kibaki administration selfishly interpreted the NO verdict to mean the people wanted the old constitution proper. After it became apparent the government of the day was bent on reneging on the new constitution promise if it did not have its way. The voice of reason comprising interest groups, the church, civil society and opposition parties invited the government to Minimum constitutional amendments in critical areas before the next general election was held in order to level the playing field. According to the then justice minister Martha karua, the government would not be party to reform movement. The magnitude of destruction resulting from anti-reform hawks was envisaged in the 2007 post election violence in Kenya.

It alters the behavior of individuals through institutional incentives or sanctions of all kinds. On the other hand, law plays an indirect role by shaping various social institutions which in turn have a direct impact on society. For example, the system of compulsory education enables the functioning of educational institutions which in turn leads to social change.

Indeed the law prohibiting Female Genital Mutilation, child drop-out and early marriages serves to alter behavior of citizens. These antiquated cultural practices are almost being eliminated in society by law. Otherwise, it would have been difficult to erase this misplaced and entrenched behavior by mere requests. After all, the many years of persuasion, directives and orders bore no fruits.

Law also brings social change by redefining the normative order and creates the possibility of new forms of social institutions: It provides formal facilities and extends rights to individuals. The law against women disinheritance has not only prohibited the inhuman practice but has also given formal rights to those who suffered from such disabilities to protest against it. Thus law not only codifies certain customs and morals but also modifies the behavior and values existing in a particular society.

Thus law entails two interrelated processes- the institutionalization and the internalization of patterns of behavior. Institutionalization means the creation of norms with provisions for its enforcement, whereas internalization means the incorporation and acceptance of values implicit in a law. When the institutionalization process is successful it in turn facilitates the Internalization of attitudes and beliefs.

Law in promoting human rights: In pre- independence period some legislation were made in relation to prevailing conservative and unorthodox social practices degrading position of women and child marriage which acted towards social reform. The new constitution not only advanced the cause of sociocultural change but also contributed towards the transformation of agrarian structure. However, the nature and extent of social change in Kenya have been influenced largely by radical social legislation introduced by the new constitutional dispensation. They pertain to subjects ranging from economy, polity, trade, and commerce to marriage, family and inheritance. Legislation impacts upon every aspect of people's lives.

In fact, some Articles in the constitution lays down certain directive principles of the state policy to secure (a) Adequate means of livelihood for all citizens; (b) control and distribution of wealth so as to Sub serve the common good; (c) equal pay for equal work; (d) health and strength for all from economic avocations; (e) protection from child labor; (f) right to work and to education; (g) uniform civil code;(e) promotion of educational and economic interests of the scheduled class,  tribes and of other weaker sectional interests.

CONCLUSION

It should be noted that the law can be used both positively to kickoff change and negatively to block reforms. The law is the most potent instrument of instigating social change at all levels in the society- individual, group, community, society, organization, institution, state and even global. Law can breed modernization, social reforms, human development and cultural and behavioral change but could also be abused by self-interested leaders in the maintenance of status quo.

Industrial Revolution Effects on Family Relationships

Industrial Revolution Effects on Family Relationships

The paradigmatic shift from farming to Industrial workforce brought rapid urbanization in search of employment opportunities for survival. Almost overnight, small towns around coal or iron mines mushroomed into cities. Changes in farming structure, soaring population growth, and an ever-increasing demand for workers led masses of people to migrate from farms to cities. These changes brought about far- reaching consequences to the family relationships between parents and their children including longer working hours, child labor, working women, child labor punishments, child delinquency, severed social mobility and emergence of new classes. This paper focuses on the industrial revolution in Europe in order to understand the effects of a shift from rural-farming to urban-industrial on the family.

Impact On The Family Relations: 

In the 19th century, Louise. A. Tilly and Joan. W. Scott, pointed out that the ‘family economy’ was replaced by the ‘family wage economy’ as industrialization caused the growth of wage labour and shift in production, outside the household to factories. The family wage economy was now defined by the need for money, to pay for food and rent, towards which individual wage earners contributed. This shift, led to a change in family structures, as family now became synonymous with ‘household’ and now comprised only kin members living under one roof. As production shifted outside the house, families were presented with the dilemma, of who would take care of production needs and who of reproduction/child care, as both didn't take place within the household anymore. Thus two spheres emerged which became associated with gender roles- (i) the private sphere associated with family and femininity  handled by wives/mothers, and (ii) the public sphere of work, commerce and politics associated with men. 

Working Class Family Changes

The Position of women and work: Tilly and Scott, examining this change in the working class family look at the role of children, daughters and married women and their centrality to the family wage economy. They say, children and especially daughters were an important economic recourse for working class families, as were put to work at a young age between 10-14years, to contribute to family income. Typically girls from rural England and France shifted to cities, as the growing urban middle class created a demand for domestic servants. For e.g. 2/3rd of all domestic help in England in 1851 were daughters of rural labourers.

Children also found great employment in the new mechanized textile industry as their nimble fingers were preferred by employers. Tilly and Scott show that often whole families shifted to new textile towns such as Manchester and Preston (England) and Roubaix and Toulouse (France) to take advantage of manufacturer’s appeals for families with “healthy strong children”. 

In such cases a parent collected the collective wage of all his family members- e.g. the Metigy family together earned 46 Francs a week. The textile industry in which women and children found greater employment than men was more lucrative than other sectors, women were paid well, jobs availability was high which often led to saving. A similar pattern of families working together was seen in mining towns such as Anzin (France), where men worked in mines and women and children sorted coal on the surface.

Child labour had important repercussions. Daughters who shifted to cities became more independent of family control, especially in spheres of marriage and spending money. Yet this independence was accompanied by greater vulnerability of economic and sexual exploitation of young girls. In cities wages were often low; employment was seasonal and unstable due to economic fluctuations. Thus the prostitution developed as a new occupation in order to survive.  In 1836 Parent Duchatelet found that majority of prostitutes in Paris were recent immigrants.

 Yet in good times jobs were plenty, and young women preferred to work in cities. This often led to permanent migration and sometimes a loosening of family ties. However on the whole Tilly and Scott argue that the period saw a continuity of strong family ties as most children felt a sense of obligation to their parents and because family also provided other benefits, as family ties maintained by mothers, helped children find jobs and lodging in new cities.  

The impact on younger children especially till 1840s was very low literacy rates e.g. studies from Manchester showed most children, “picked up some schooling between 3 and 12 years at irregular intervals.” The economic needs of families took precedence over education. This situation improved slightly after compulsory primary education laws were passed in Britain (1841), France and Germany post 1840s. Michael Anderson says that children earning a wage often gained some independence too and sometimes entered, “relational bargains with their parents on terms of more or less precise equality.” 

Married women’s role conflict: Married women in the family wage economy played multiple roles, which varied across working class and middle class households. In working class women contributed wages to the family fund apart from their traditional roles of managing the house, being available, self- sacrifice, bearing and caring for children. Once women married their domestic duties and child care increasingly conflicted with their capacity to earn a wage as industrial jobs demanded long hours (upto 18 hours) away from home. This conflict was resolved by married women not working, unless financial necessity demanded. It also led to the concept of a ‘male bread winner’ emerging, as a result of gendering of the newly created public and private spheres discussed above. A gendering of spheres was more blurred among working class homes in which married women were forced to work. 

Women’s work reflected a distinct pattern. Women worked full time industrial jobs before and in early years of marriage before childbirth, if necessary. After childbirth women usually took on non-mechanized garment trades(e.g. needlework) or earned wages as caterers, laundresses, charwomen and as keepers of cafe’s and inns, jobs which could be done from the house thus reducing time away from home. Women carrying out these jobs usually didn't consider themselves as employed, to avoid paying taxes. Women’s jobs were often low paying, exploiting and temporary. 

It was usually when what Michael Anderson refers to as “critical life situations” hit (death, illness or unemployment of a husband) which were common in the 19th century, that married women were again forced to work. E.g. in textile towns’ wives of men in low paying jobs, worked in the mills. In such situations, the gendering of private and public spheres blurred as males often fulfilled domestic duties. 

Another impact of married women being forced to work was a rise in child mortality rates as children were sent to wet nurses and they suffered from malnutrition and beatings as punishment yet the survival of the family was more important than that of an infant. As children grew up to age 10 and could be put to work, mother’s were spared working, as children now took on this role, contributing to the family fund. Married women were then forced back into the workforce, in their old age, when children got married, moved away and husbands grew old and ill. In such cases married women took up any work they found.

In the domestic sphere married women played vital roles, they cooked, cleaned and nursed the wage earning family members. Majority of the working class budget was spent on food Michael Martineau’s study of wage spent on grain in five types of French families between 1823 and 1835 shows an average of 55%. A mother’s managerial role was well recognised in the household, as she managed the family fun to put food on the table. As children spent more time at home only leaving when married, bonds of affection also increased between mother and children as she organized the family and fed it. Mothers also fulfilled an important social role, of maintaining larger family ties, by visiting relatives with gifts and preparing food for festivals. This was important as the larger kin network helped children get employment and shelter when they moved to cities.

MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES:

In middle class or bourgeoisie Lynn Abrams says that children and wives usually didn't work and especially not out of financial necessity, as males earned well enough. Thus the gendering of the private and public spheres was greater in the middle class household, as the married woman’s ideal role was that of a mother/wife, who maintained a good house and provided an emotional haven for husband and children to escape the hardships of the industrial world. Abrams says the middle class mother’s role as chief organizer of the house was valued. The increasing association of the home with women led to women being seen as dependents and incapable of productive roles like-politics and work. It also led to the development of patriarchy. Yet women’s withdrawal from the work space didn't entail a total withdrawal. Women in England and France contributed financial recourses to family businesses and often controlled husband’s business activity. E.g. in France, Deborah Simonton, shows family businesses often combined the names of husband and wife e.g. The Mequillet-Noblet Cotton Company. 

The division of private and public spheres also emerged within the house, as private bedrooms became distanced from common spaces like the kitchen and parlor. Thus Abrams says that in the 19th century the home was increasingly on display, and the family became self conscious, drawing rooms were filled with ornaments, furniture and wallpaper often made by the women of the house since the women were now primarily judged for their domestic roles. Women also became the representatives of the family as they stayed at home and met with relatives, salesmen and officials. 

With regards to children, the mother child relationship was central to the new family as children now came to fulfill an emotional role as opposed to a financial one. One saw the development of a concept of childhood and adolescence as Peter .N. Sterns points out because children began to stay home longer usually till marriage, even within working class families. This was because middle class children didn't work but were educated for longer now and in the working class labour laws (1830s) and compulsory education laws (1840s) in Britain and France, led to literacy increasing and children staying at home longer. The middle class family also offered escape for working husbands from the hardship of work life, thus family activities such as playing the piano after dinner and family holidays developed.  

With regards to single mothers and widows who didn't fit the domestic family ideal the space for them to be integrated into a household reduced, as families became smaller.

Peter . N. Sterns also says industrialization led to decreasing birth rates first in middle class and by 1870s in working class due to emphasis on birth control. In the middle class this ‘demographic transition’ occurred due to greater emphasis on the concept of childhood, education and familial bonds. While in working class households it occurred due to economic pressure, to conserve recourses. By 1900 most families had 2-4 children instead of 6 to 8. 

However Tilly and Scott also point out that the transformation of the family was widespread yet all families didn't shift to the family wage economy, in France especially compared to Britain small farms with family production died out only in the early 20th century.

Conclusion

In summary the 19th century middle class norm of the mother at the centre of the family as a homemaker or ‘angle in the house’ and the clear cut gendering of spheres, became the widespread in working class households by the late 19th/early 20th century. This was one of the main social legacies of industrialization and capitalism in the 19th and early 20th century, interlinked to the development of a working class and growing bourgeoisie, which changed the social fabric of Western Europe. Indeed the industrial revolution initiated changes in family relations between parents and their children as it’s lasting impact.