Naslov
Population ageing and distributive conflicts: age distributive divisions in Western Europe

Autori
Henjak, Andrija

Izvornik
Revija za socijalnu politiku (1330-2965) 15 (2008), 2; 189-208

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, članak, znanstveni

Ključne riječi
pension system ; pension reform ; distributive divisions ; population ageing ; attitudes toward pension systems ; social spending focus

Sažetak
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 confl icts between groups favouring different types of welfare spending. The paper argues that the strength and the nature of distributive confl icts 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 fi ndings 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.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Politologija

POVEZANOST RADA