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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| A context for teaching aging-related public policy | | Author(s) | David K Brown |
| Journal title | Educational Gerontology, vol 25, no 8, December 1999 |
| Pages | pp 711-722 |
| Keywords | Ageing process ; Ageism ; Social policy ; Teaching methods ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | The basis of social support in the US that provides political legitimacy for age-related public policy is being called into question. Critics focus on the rapid growth of entitlement benefits for older people, both in terms of use and costs. Some have even suggested that if current levels of spending are not curbed, we will sacrifice the economic legacy of our children. Programmes specifically targeted for criticism are Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. This article presents an issues overview of these programmes in the context of current calls for reform. It suggests that ageing public policy can be usefully taught and analysed from the perspective of two conflicting schools of thought: the devolutionists, and the safety netters. Devolutionists would tightly curtail the sustaining federal role in providing benefits to older people, while safety netters maintain that the federal government's role is indispensable. Relative deprivation theory, as advanced by Gurr (Why men rebel, 1970) is posited as a useful framework for explaining how ageing policy evolves and for illustrating the dynamics that underpin the process. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-000121215 A |
| Classmark | BG: B:TOB: TM2: VB: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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