The Senior Rights Movement

by Powell, Lawrence Alfred; Branco, Kenneth J.; Williamson, John B.

• ISBN13: 9780805797107
• ISBN10: 0805797106
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-07-01
• Publisher: Twayne Pub

Summary

As the life expectancy of the average American continues to increase and the baby-boom generation moves toward retirement, the near future will see ever larger numbers of older citizens whose welfare and guarantees of equity and social justice are the subjects of heated debate in Washington. In recent years Medicare, Social Security, and other federal programs that aid older Americans have come under attack by political conservatives who claim that such programs drain the budget at the expense of people under age 65. At this critical period in the history of the senior rights movement, Lawrence Alfred Powell, John B. Williamson, and Kenneth J. Branco provide a comprehensive and enlightening analysis of the dynamics of aging-policy reform and its development over the past two centuries. Using examples of political rhetoric and media images dating from colonial days to the present, they trace the conflict between progressive senior-rights advocates and conservative opponents of reform in order to frame the debate over societal definitions of fairness and social justice in old age, emphasizing the role played by symbolic politics in these struggles. Their account underscores the importance of the symbolic gestures and countergestures that have been used by both senior-rights advocates and their opponents to influence the direction of events and to sway public opinion on aging issues.

Author Biography

Lawrence Alfred Powell is assistant professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Table of Contents

Preface
Old-Age Equity as a Social Construct: The Symbolic Politics of Reality Definition and Mass Persuasion	p. 1
Defining Justice for the Old and a Young Nation: Historical Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Struggles	p. 18
The Incipient Senior Rights Movement: Legitimizing Pensions in the Public Mind	p. 40
The Original Social Security Crisis: Economic Depression and Elite Responses to Reform Pressures	p. 96
Coalition Politics and the Struggle for Medicare: Further Elite Concessions and Symbolic Appeasement	p. 108
The Institutionalization of Policy Reform: Gray Lobbies, White House Conferences, and the Aging Enterprise	p. 127
Old Age and the New Right: Resisting Attempts to Delegitimize Social Security	p. 150
Framing the Equity Debate in an Era of Mass-Mediated Political Realities	p. 201
Notes	p. 211
Bibliography	p. 225
Index	p. 251
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