Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.3935/rsp.v15i2.704
Population Ageing and Distributive Conflicts: Age Distributive Divisions in Western Europe
Andrija Henjak
; Fakultet političkih znanosti Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Abstract
Advanced industrial societies are facing pressures to spend more on pensions and services for the elderly, at the same time as they need to invest more in the raising participation of younger population in the labour force and the integration of immigrants needed to replenish the ageing labour force. This sets the stage for distributive conflicts between groups favouring different types of welfare spending. The paper argues that the strength and the nature of distributive conflicts depend to a large extent on the spending focus of the welfare system, the type of the pension system and the importance of the family within the welfare system. While in countries with occupation-based pension systems and welfare systems with spending tilted toward the elderly we can expect to observe the strong presence of age based divisions, in countries with universalist pension systems and welfare systems with more balanced spending patterns we can expect age to have much smaller effects. The paper tests these propositions using the Eurobarometer data. The findings support the proposition concerning the importance of age based distributive divisions and their variation across national contexts. This variation seems to be linked with the spending focus of the welfare state, but in a way that is not in accordance with our expectations.
Keywords
pension system; pension reform; distributive divisions; population ageing; attitudes toward pension systems; social spending focus
Hrčak ID:
30372
URI
Publication date:
27.6.2008.
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