New Directions in Old-Age Policies

Edited by Janie S. Steckenrider & Tonya M. Parrott

Subjects: Gerontology/aging Studies
Paperback : 9780791439142, 285 pages, September 1998
Hardcover : 9780791439135, 285 pages, September 1998

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Table of contents

List of Tables

List of Figures

Chapter 1. Introduction: The Political Environment and the New Face of Aging Policy

Janie S. Steckenrider and Tonya M. Parrott

I. Distinct Policy Domains: A Fresh Look at Old-Age Policies

Chapter 2. Health Care Policies and Older Americans

Robert H. Binstock

Chapter 3. Economic Security: Strengthening Social Security

Yung-Ping Chen

Chapter 4. Housing and Supportive Services for the Elderly: Intergenerational Perspectives and Options

Phoebe S. Liebig

II. Politics and Aging Policy

Chapter 5. Policy, Politics, Aging: Crossroads in the 1990s

Fernando M. Torres-Gil

Chapter 6. The 1995 White House Conference on Aging:
A Tradition Confronts a Revolution

Robert B. Blancato and Brian W. Lindberg

Chapter 7. The Changing Political Activism Patterns of Older Americans: "Don't Throw the Dirt Over Us Yet"

Susan MacManus and Kathryn Dunn Tenpas

Chapter 8. Old Age Interest Groups in the 1990s:
Coalitions, Competition, and Strategy

Christine L. Day

Chapter 9. Competing Problems, Budget Constraints, and Claims for Intergenerational Equity

Laurie A. Rhodebeck

III. The Family, Ethnicity, and Older Women: Aging Policy Dilemmas

Chapter 10. Changing Family Demographics, Caregiving Demands, and the Policy Environment

Tonya M. Parrott

Chapter 11. Aging Policy and the Experience of Older Minorities

Valentine M. Villa

Chapter 12. Aging as a Female Phenomenon:
The Plight of Older Women

Janie S. Steckenrider

Chapter 13. The Paradox of Old-Age Policy in a Changed Political Environment

Tonya M. Parrott and Janie S. Steckenrider

Contributors

Author Index

Subject Index

Provides a comprehensive assessment of the political environment and the state of old-age policy and politics and discusses specific, realistic policy options for the future.

Description

This book explores the changed political environment in the United States and what it means for the policies and programs benefiting the elderly and their families. It includes chapters written by distinguished contributors, such as Fernando Torres-Gil, Assistant Secretary for Aging, Clinton Administration, and discusses specific, realistic policy options for the future. New Directions in Old-Age Policies suggests that old-age policy in the changed political environment is a paradox of competing agendas: individual versus fiscal responsibility in policy choices, doing more for the elderly and their families with fewer public resources, and prioritizing the status quo or change in policy decisions for the elderly.

Janie S. Steckenrider is Associate Professor of Political Science at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. Tonya M. Parrott is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Gerontology at Quinnipiac College, Connecticut.

Reviews

"Most policy oriented books tend to be quite specialized—on Social Security only, or Medicare only. This is truly the first I've seen that covers the whole range of aging policy issues. The essays are well-written, the topics are timely, and the contributors are top notch. There is nothing like it on the market." — Jill Quadagno, Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy, Florida State University

"The dimensions of the policy problem of aging are convincingly laid out. The political and social dimensions of gray politics are explored, and the broader causal origins of aging as a poverty problem are stated forcefully." — Ronald Keith Gaddie, University of Oklahoma