The case of Hockenjos v Secretary of State (2004) held that a father who was denied the childcare element of Jobseekers' Allowance (a benefit which now has been repealed) had been `discriminated against'. The case was litigated by a fathers' rights activist, and has been hailed both as an important victory for the wider `movement', and as a step towards obtaining child tax credits for fathers who live separately from their children. This article argues that efforts by the UK fathers' rights movement to obtain child tax credits, in particular, reflect an attempt to use the tax system to force an allocation of rights. This thesis is advanced through a fiscal sociological analysis, largely because the insights into the role of class in the functioning of economies that are offered by a Marxian analysis are made accessible to tax scholars through fiscal sociology. These perspectives are particularly important in an analysis of tax credits, given that the architects of these `Third Way' initiatives very much had class mobility in mind.
Anderlik, Mary R. and Mark A. Rothstein (2002) `DNA-based Identity Testing and the Future of the Family: A Research Agenda', American Journal of Law & Medicine28: 215-32.
2.
Backhaus, Jurgen (2002) `Fiscal Sociology: What For?', The American Journal of Economics & Sociology61(1), 55-104.
Backhaus, Jurgen (2004) `Joseph A. Schumpeter's Contributions in the Area of Fiscal Sociology: A First Approximation', Journal of Evolutionary Economics14: 143-51.
5.
Bashevkin, S. (2002) Comparative Studies in Care-giving, Employment and Social Policy Reform. New York: Routledge.
6.
Blomberg, H. and C. Kroll (1999) `Do Structural Contexts Matter? Macro-sociological Factors and Popular Attitudes towards Public Welfare Services', Acta Sociologica42(4): 319-35.
7.
Blum, Linda M. and Elizabeth A. Vandewater , (1993) `"Mother to Mother": A Maternalist Organization in Late Capitalist America', Social Problems40(3): 285-300.
8.
Blundell, R. and C. Meghir (2001) `Active Labour Market Policy vs Employment Tax Credits: Lessons from Recent UK Reforms', Swedish Economic Policy Review8: 239-66.
9.
Blundell, R., A. Duncan, J. McCrae and C. Meghir (2000) `The Labour Market Impact of the Working Families' Tax Credit', Fiscal Studies21: 75-104.
10.
Boron, A. (1999) `A Social Theory for the Twenty-first Century?' , Current Sociology47: 47-64.
11.
Boyd, S.B. (1999) `Family, Law and Sexuality: Feminist Engagements' , Social & Legal Studies8(3): 370-90.
12.
Boyd, S.B. (2003) Child Custody, Law, and Women's Work. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
13.
Boyd, S.B. and C.F. Young (2004) `Feminism, Law, and Public Policy: Family Feuds and Taxing Times', Osgoode Hall Law Journal42: 545-82.
14.
Brownlee, W. Elliott (2003) Funding the Modern American State, 1941-1995: The Rise and Fall of the Era of Easy Finance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
15.
Burchardt, T., J. Le Grand and D. Piachaud (1999) `Social Exclusion in Britain 1991-1995', Social Policy and Administration33: 227-44.
16.
Campbell, J.L. (1993) `The State and Fiscal Sociology', Annual Review of Sociology19.
17.
Campbell, J.L. (2005) `Fiscal Sociology,' pp. 285-9 in Jens Beckert and Milan Zafirovsky (eds) International Encyclopedia of Economic Sociology. London: Routledge.
18.
Cass, B. (1995) Women in a Restructuring Australia: Work and Welfare . Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
19.
Chambers, C. (2005) `Masculine Domination, Radical Feminism and Change' , Feminist Theory6: 325-46.
20.
Chunn, Dorothy E. and Shelley A. M. Gavigan (2004) `Welfare Law, Welfare Fraud, and the Moral Regulation of the "Never Deserving", Poor', Social & Legal Studies13(2): 219-43.
21.
Clancy, Peter, James Bickerton and Ian Stewart (2000) The Savage Years: The Perils of Reinventing Government in Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia: Formac.
22.
Clark, Emma and Julie Quinn (2007) `Work and Family: A Delicate Balance', Practical Law Companies18: 31-5.
23.
Collier, R. (1995) `Waiting Till Father Gets Home: The Reconstruction of Fatherhood in Family Law', Social & Legal Studies4: 5-30.
24.
Collier, R. (1996) `Coming Together? Post-heterosexuality, Masculine Crisis and the New Men's Movement', Feminist Legal Studies4: 3-48.
25.
Collier, R. (2001) `A Hard Time to Be a Father? Reassessing the Relationship Between Law, Policy, and Family (Practices)', Journal of Law & Society28(4): 520-45.
26.
Coltrane, S. and N. Hickman (1992) `The Rhetoric of Rights and Needs: Moral Discourse in the Reform of Child Custody and Child Support Laws', Social Problems39: 400-20.
27.
Cornell, D.( 1998) At the Heart of Freedom: Feminism, Sex, and Equality. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press .
28.
Dean, H. and A. Shah (2002) `Insecure Families and Low-paying Labour Markets: Comments on the British Experience', Journal of Social Policy31: 61-80.
29.
Deutsch, K.W. (1956) `Joseph Schumpeter as an Analyst of Sociology and Economic History', The Journal of Economic History16: 41-56.
30.
Dickert, S., S. Houser and J.K. Scholz (1995) `The Earned Income Tax Credit and Transfer Programs: A Study of Labor Market and Program Participation', Tax Policy and the Economy9: 1-50.
31.
Dilnot, A. and J. McCrae (1999) `Family Credit and the Working Families' Tax Credit ', Paper presented at OECD workshop on Making Work Pay.
32.
Dowling, Gillian (2003) `Rights for Fathers', Small Business Tax & Finance15(11): 121-2.
33.
Driver, S. and L. Martell (2002) `New Labour, Work and the Family', Social Policy and Administration36: 46-61.
34.
Duncombe, J. and D. Marsden (1993) `Love and Intimacy: The Gender Division of Emotion and Emotion Work: A Neglected Aspect of Sociological Discussion of Heterosexual Relationships', Sociology27: 221.
35.
Evers, A., J. Lewis and B. Riedel (2005) `Developing Child-care Provision in England and Germany: Problems of Governance', Journal of European Social Policy15(3): 195-209.
36.
Ferree, M.M. (1976) `Working-class Jobs: Housework and Paid Work as Sources of Satisfaction', Social Problems23: 431-41.
37.
Fineman, M. (1988) `Dominant Discourse, Professional Language, and Legal Change in Child Custody Decisionmaking', Harvard Law Review101: 727-74.
38.
Fineman, M.A. (1991) The Illusion of Equality: The Rhetoric and Reality of Divorce Reform. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
39.
Fraser, N. (1990) `Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy', Social Text No. 25/26: 56-80.
40.
Friedman, J. (1974) `Marxism, Structuralism and Vulgar Materialism' , Man9: 444-69.
41.
Garfinkel, I., D. Meyer and P. Wong (1990) `The Potential of Child Care Tax Credits to Reduce Poverty and Welfare Recipiency', Population Research and Policy Review9: 45-63.
42.
Garrett, Shannon M. (2003) `Battered by Equality: Could Minnesota's Domestic Violence Statutes Survive a "Fathers' Rights" Assault?', Law & Inequality21: 341.
43.
Giddens, A. (1984) The Constitution of Society. Cambridge: Polity.
44.
Giddens, A. (2000) The Third Way and Its Critics. Cambridge: Polity.
45.
Giddens, A. (2007) Global Europe, Social Europe. Cambridge: Polity.
46.
Giersch, H. (1984) `The Age of Schumpeter', The American Economic Review74: 103-9.
47.
Gouthro, P.A. (2005) `A Critical Feminist Analysis of the Homeplace as Learning Site: Expanding the Discourse of Lifelong Learning to Consider Adult Women Learners', International Journal of Lifelong Education24(1): 5-19.
48.
Holden, C. (1999) `Globalization, Social Exclusion and Labour's New Work Ethic', Critical Social Policy19: 529-38.
49.
Holtzman, M. (2006) `Definitions of the Family as an Impetus for Legal Change in Custody Decision Making: Suggestions from an Empirical Case Study' , Law and Social Inquiry31: 1.
50.
Hoyle, C. and D. Rose (2001) `Labour, Law and Order', The Political Quarterly72(1): 76-85.
51.
Hunt, A. (1990) `Rights and Social Movements: Counter-hegemonic Strategies', Journal of Law and Society17: 309-28.
52.
Ingles, D. (2001) `Earned Income Tax Credits: Do They Have Any Role to Play in Australia?', The Australian Economic Review34: 14-32.
53.
James, H. (1984) `The Causes of the German Banking Crisis of 1931' , The Economic History Review37: 68-87.
54.
Jinno, N. and A. DeWit (1998) `Japan's Taxing Bureaucrats: Fiscal Sociology and the Property-tax Revolt', Social Science Japan Journal1(2): 233-46.
55.
Larsen, T.P., P. Taylor-Gooby and J. Kananen (2004) `The Myth of a Dual-earner Society', WRAMSOC Working Paper. Available at http://www.kent.ac.uk/wramsoc/conferencesandworkshops/berlinconference.htm
56.
Levin, M.A., M.K. Landy and M.M. Shapiro (2001) Seeking the Center: Politics and Policymaking at the New Century. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
57.
Lewis, J. (1986) `Feminism and Welfare', pp. 85-101 in Juliet Mitchell and Ann Oakley (eds) What Is Feminism?Oxford: Blackwell.
58.
Lewis, J. (1992a) `Gender and the Development of Welfare Regimes' , Journal of European Social Policy2: 159.
59.
Lewis, J. (1992b) Women in Britain since 1945. Blackwell: Oxford.
60.
Lewis, J. (2002) `The Problem of Fathers: Policy and Behavior in Britain', pp. 125-49 in B. Hobson (ed.) Making Men into Fathers. New York: Cambridge University Press.
61.
Lewis, J. (2006) `Work/Family Reconciliation, Equal Opportunities and Social Policies: The Interpretation of Policy Trajectories at the EU Level and the Meaning of Gender Equality', Journal of European Public Policy13(3): 420-37.
62.
Liebman, J.B. (1998) `The Impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit on Incentives and Income Distribution' (NBER, MIT Press2000), Tax Policy and the Economy pp. 83-120 in James M. Potera (ed.).
63.
London, E. (2004) `A Critique of the Strict Liability Standard for Determining Child Support in Cases of Male Victims of Sexual Assault and Statutory Rape', University of Pennsylvania Law Review52: 1957-99.
64.
Machan, Tibor R. (1994) Private Rights and Public Illusions. Somerset, NJ: Transaction.
65.
McClure, M. (2003) `Fiscal Sociology', Discussion Paper 03.16, Economics Program, School of Ecopnomics and Commerce, The University of Western Australia (on file at the British Library).
66.
McLaughlin, E., J. Trewsdale and N. McCay (2001) `The Rise and Fall of the UK's First Tax Credit: The Working Families Tax Credit 1998-2000', Social Policy and Administration35: 163-80.
67.
Mandell, D. (2002) Deadbeat Dads: Subjectivity and Social Construction . Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
68.
Mason, M.A. (1996) From Father's Property to Children's Rights: The History of Child Custody in the United States. New York : Columbia University Press.
69.
Meyer, B.D. and D.T. Rosenbaum (2001) `Welfare, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Labor Supply of Single Mothers', Technology1063.
70.
Mincy, R.B. and E.J. Sorensen (1998) `Deadbeats and Turnips in Child Support Reform' , Journal of Policy Analysis and Management17(1): 44-51.
71.
Misra, J. and F. Akins (1998) `The Welfare State and Women: Structure, Agency, and Diversity', Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society5: 259-85.
72.
Murray, Robin and Geoff Mulgan (1993) Reconnecting Taxation. London : Demos.
73.
Musgrave, R.A. (1980) `Theories of Fiscal Crises: An Essay in Fiscal Sociology', pp. 361-90 in Henry J. Aaron and Michael J. Boskin (eds) The Economics of Taxation. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.
74.
Musgrave, R.A. (1992) `Schumpeter's Crisis of the Tax State: An Essay in Fiscal Sociology', Stochastic Hydrology and Hydraulics2: 89-113.
75.
Myral, Alva and Viola Klein (1956) Women's Two Roles. London: Routledge.
76.
Nickerson, Craig (2000) `Gender Bias in a Florida Court: "Mr. Mom" v. "The Poster Girl for Working Mothers"'California Western Law Review Fall2000, 185-216.
77.
Oakley, Ann (1985) The Sociology of Housework. Blackwell: Oxford.
78.
Oppenheimer, V.K. (1994) `Women's Rising Employment and the Future of the Family in Industrial Societies', Population and Development Review20. pp. 293-342
79.
Pascall, Gillian (1997) Social Policy: A New Feminist Analysis. New York: Routledge.
80.
Peretz, Paul (1996) The Politics of American Policy Making. London: M.E. Sharpe.
81.
Piachaud, D. (2001) `Child Poverty, Opportunities and Quality of Life' , The Political Quarterly72: 446-53.
82.
Polletta, F. (1998) Contending Stories: Narrative in Social Movements' , Qualitative Sociology21: 419-46.
83.
Powell, M. (2000) `New Labour and the Third Way in the British Welfare State: A New and Distinctive Approach?', Critical Social Policy20: 39.
84.
Pugh, G. (2006) Contemporary Issues in the Early Years. London: SAGE.
85.
Rachert, John, A. (1990) Welfare Fraud and the State: British Columbia 1970-7 . M.A. thesis, Simon Fraser University.
86.
Rosenfeld, R.A. (1996) `Women's Work Histories', Population and Development Review22: 199-222.
87.
Roy, R.K. (2003) Fiscal Policy Convergence from Reagan to Blair: The Left Veers Right. London: Routledge .
88.
Schumpeter, J.A. (1950) `The March into Socialism', The American Economic Review40: 446-56.
89.
Schumpeter, J.A. (1983) The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest and the Business Cycle. London: Transaction.
90.
Schumpeter, J.A., R. Opie and J.E. Elliot (1932/1982) The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest, and the Business Cycle . London: Transaction.
91.
Schumpeter, J.A. and R. Swedberg (1991) The Economics and Sociology of Capitalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press .
92.
Seccombe, K., D. James and K.B. Walters (1998) `"They Think You Ain't Much of Nothing": The Social Construction of the Welfare Mother' 60(4): 849-65.
93.
Segal, Lynne (1999) Why Feminism? Gender, Psychology, Politics. New York: Columbia University Press.
94.
Skinner, C. and N. Finch (2006) `Lone Parents and Informal Childcare: A Tax Credit Childcare Subsidy?', Social Policy and Administration40: 807-23.
95.
Smart, C. (1991) `The Legal and Moral Ordering of Child Custody' , Journal of Law and Society18: 485-500.
96.
Smart, C. (2004) `Equal Shares: Rights for Fathers or Recognition for Children?', Critical Social Policy24: 484.
97.
Smart, C. (2006) `The Ethic of Justice Strikes Back: Changing Narratives of Fatherhood', pp. 123-137 in A. Diduck and K. O'Donovan (eds) Feminist Perspectives on Family Law. Abingdon: Routledge-Cavendish .
98.
Smith, S. (2001) `Joint Residence, Benefits and Discrimination: Hockenjos v. Secretary of State for Social Security', Welfare Benefits8(3): 13-16.
99.
Stenson, K. and P. Watt (1999) `Governmentality and "the Death of the Social"? A Discourse Analysis of Local Government Texts in South-East England', Urban Studies36(1): 189-201.
100.
Swedberg, R. (1991) `Major Traditions of Economic Sociology', Annual Review of Sociology17: 251-76.
101.
Swedberg, R. (1998) Max Weber and the Idea of Economic Sociology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press .
102.
Sylvester, R. (1999) `Labour atBournemouth: Blair Babes v Brown Battleaxes in Mother of All Contests', The Daily Telegraph, 29 September.
103.
Taylor-Gooby, P. (2005) `Attitudes to Social Justice', Social Justice: Building a Fairer Britain. London: IPPR & Politico.
104.
Thornton, M. (1997) `The Judicial Gendering of Citizenship: A Look at Property Interests during Marriage', Journal of Law and Society24(4): 486-503.
105.
Tolmie, J. (1998) `Discoursing Dads: The Rhetorical Devices of Fathers' Rights Groups', Melbourne University Law Review22: 162-91.
106.
Turner, B.S. and P. Hamilton (1994) Citizenship: Critical Concepts. London: Routledge.
107.
van der Veen, H. (2003) `Taxing the Drug Trade: Coercive Exploitation and the Financing of Rule', Crime, Law and Social Change40: 349-90.
108.
van Krieken, R. (2005) `The "Best Interests of the Child" and Parental Separation: On the "Civilizing of Parents"', Modern Law Review68: 25-48.
109.
Ventry, D.J. (2000) `The Collision of Tax and Welfare Politics: The Political History of the Earned Income Tax Credit, 1969-99', National Tax Journal53(4): 983-1026.
110.
Wagner, R.E. and J. Backhaus (2004) Handbook of Public Finance. London: Springer.
111.
Walker, A.J. and L.A. McGraw (2000) `Who Is Responsible for Responsible Fathering?', Journal of Marriage and the Family62(2): 563-9.
112.
Walker, R. (1999) `The Americanization of British Welfare: A Case Study of Policy Transfer', International Journal of Health Services29: 679-97.
113.
Weber, M. (2003) `General Economic History', Courier Dover Publications, Mineola, NY, USA (transl. Frank H. Knight).
Whitty, G. (2001) `Education, Social Class and Social Exclusion' , Journal of Education Policy16: 287-95.
116.
Wright, E.O. (1978) `Race, Class, and Income Inequality', The American Journal of Sociology83(6): 1368-97.
117.
Yaffe, N.E. (1995) `A Fathers' Rights Perspective on Custody Law in California: Would You Believe It If I Told You That The Law Is Fair to Fathers?' S. Cal. Interdisc. Law Journal4: 135-60.
118.
Young, C.F. (1994) `Taxing Times for Lesbians and Gay Men: Equality at What Cost?', Dalhousie Law Journal17: 534-9.
