Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0002-8319-9080

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1999

Keywords

Family law, Dependency work, Privacy, Feminist critique, State

Abstract

This nuclear unit is thought to be in "crisis" because of the tendency of many marriages to dissemble and dissolve. Some people claim that society is also in a state of crisis as a result of marital instability. Many are concerned by the assembling of "deviant" and competing intimate entities claiming entitlement to the benefits and privileges previously extended to marriage." The family has become the symbolic terrain for the cultural war in which our society is increasingly mired. If one believes the family is not inherently limited to any essential or natural form, but is as contrived as any other societal institution, it affects one's perspective of the relationship between state and family. The metaphor of "symbiosis"' seems more appropriate than the separate spheres imagery: the family is located within the state. In this conceptualization, family and state are interactive; they define one another. Alterations in the scope or nature of one institution will correspondingly alter the scope or nature of the other. Although law initially defines the family by controlling entry and determining the consequences of its formation, once formed, the family is a powerful constituency within the state. The expectations for the family relieve the state of some obligations. Family actions (or inactions) can place pressure on the state and require adjustments and accommodation that alter the nature of the state. The family will demand resources, and the more favored the family is, the more pressure from outsiders to the institution demanding entry.

If this model of the family-state relationship is accurate, it has important implications for public policy. First, it indicates that the relationship between family and state is not fixed - it is potentially dynamic. Second, it illustrates that the family is not a natural entity with a form that is constant and essential - it is a societal creation. Family and state can be reconfigured, and have been reconfigured, to reflect different sets of expectations and aspirations for both. This suggests that society would benefit from periodic self-conscious considerations about the continued viability and desirability of historic assumptions about the family as an institution.

First Page

1207

Publication Title

The George Washington Law Review

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