Description: This book asks why some countries devote the lion's share of their social policy resources to the elderly, while others have a more balanced repertoire of social spending. Far from being the outcome of demands for welfare spending by powerful age-based groups in society, the 'age' of welfare is an unintended consequence of the way that social programs are set up. The way that politicians use welfare state spending to compete for votes, along either programmatic or particularistic lines, locks these early institutional choices into place. So while society is changing - aging, divorcing, moving in and out of the labor force over the life course in new ways - social policies do not evolve to catch up. The result, in occupational welfare states like Italy, the United States, and Japan, is social spending that favors the elderly and leaves working-aged adults and children largely to fend for themselves.
Brief description: Julia Lynch is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Her recent dissertation, on which this book is based, garnered the Gabriel Almond prize of the American Political Science Association for the best dissertation in comparative politics. Professor Lynch was previously a scholar in the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Scholars program at Harvard University, and she has been a visiting researcher at the European University Institute in Florence and the Luxembourg Income Study project in Luxembourg
Review Quotes: "To those who claim that the welfare state has been over-researched I would suggest that they read Age in the Welfare State. This book revisists the comparative welfare state debate with a novel and innovative life course prism. Julia Lynch starts with a deceptively simple question: why does the age profile of social benefits look so different across countries? Her conclusion, it turns out, is quite at odds with the reigning consensus. With style, elegance, and rigour Lynch shows us that only serious historical scrutiny will provide persuasive answers."
Gosta Esping-Andersen, Universitad Pompeu Fabra