Social construction of target groups in the discussions of alimony law in the Parliament in 2001 - 2009: implications for policy-making
Abstract
The paper analyzes the causes of the failure of four alimony bill proposals in the Czech chamber of deputies in the period 2001 - 2009 using the public policy theory of social constructions of target groups by Schneider and Ingram. Based on the information from transcriptions of the respective discussions it concludes that the social construction of the target groups in question - children, mothers and fathers-defaulters - belong to the "dependents" and "deviants" categories which may be one of the causes of the failures.
Finally, it suggests what should be considered in future aims for the approval (submitters should focus more on "dependent" children in lone-parent families as the primary target group and avoid "deviant" connotations) and how the problem could move towards its resolution (an advocacy NGO would be really helpful).