ABSTRACT
Family policy, what government does to and for families, is a term that has been employed quite frequently in the recent past, despite the fact that those who use it have experienced some difficulty in defining it clearly. Mary Jo Bane (1980), for example, has argued that family policy in a formal sense simply does not exist in the United States. Gilbert Steiner, in The Futility of Family Policy (1981) took it a step further. Not only does family policy not exist in the United States, contends Steiner, the complexity of our political system will prevent it from ever assuming a form similar to what exists in Europe and Scandinavia. At best, if one argues from this perspective, family policy is more an academic discipline than a blueprint for government action.
