CSP - Week 7

• Generation


  A group of people born during a similar TIME PERIOD; going through similar life stages at the same time

  • Categorizes people based on the HISTORICAL and SOCIAL CONTEXT they were born/raised in
• Why is "generation" important in social policy?

  Generations experience similar historical events, which shape their VALUES and POLITICAL LEANINGS.
• Generational politics


  The political DYNAMICS and INTERACTIONS between different generations
• Age-related social risks


  VULNERABILITIES associated with life stages

  • e.g., income loss due to retirement
• Population aging


  When the share of the elderly population increases, while the share of the working age population decreases (based on OADR)
• Social rights


  The ENTITLEMENT and PROTECTIONS individuals have in a society
• Institutional social policy structures


  SYSTEMS put in place by the STATE to address social issues and provide support

  • e.g., GWC
• Generational welfare contract


  HOW welfare state institutions address age-related SOCIAL RISKS and distribute SOCIAL RIGHTS

  • The implicit agreement within a society about how resources, risks, and responsibilities are distributed across different generation
• Balanced GWC


  An EVEN distribution of social rights across age-related risk categories
• Unbalanced GWC


  An UNEVEN distribution of social rights across age-related risk categories
• Age-balanced social protection:

  Offers equal levels of INCOME REPLACEMENT for age-related social risks

  • Takes a SNAPSHOT to see how we're spending on different ages
• How does social protection differ from GWC?

  A GWC is based on the DISTRIBUTION of social rights
• Normative debates


  Discussions around value, morality, and what ought to be

  • e.g., what sort of institutional arrangements are moral, ethical, justifiable, etc.
• Generational equity


  The fair distribution of RESOURCES and OPPORTUNITIES between generations
• Generational justice

  The fair distribution of resources, opportunities, and burdens between co-existing generations, including the moral and ethical obligations between generations
• Generational justice can refer to what?

  Either to the resources of each generation at a given moment, or to equal treatment of successive generations
• Positive sum solutions


  Policies that BENEFIT multiple parties, resulting in GAINS for all rather than one benefitting at the expense of others
• Positive sum solutions aim to do what?

  Address the NEEDS and INTERESTS of different age groups, without creating disadvantages for any particular generation
• Discuss positive sum solutions in the context of generational welfare

  With positive sum solutions, SUPPORT is sustained across the LIFE COURSE, which creates POLICY FEEDBACK EFFECTS, to aid the expansion of taxes to facilitate positive social outcomes (e.g., lower poverty)

  • This builds support for the welfare state → interest coalitions & cooperation across generations
• Generational conflict

  A ZERO-SUM interaction between age cohorts due to the distribution of resources and social policies
• The three main stages of life

  Childhood, working age, and old age

  • Identified by Rowntree (1901): stages of life where economic pressures peak, causing the cycle of poverty
• Quality of social protection

  The EXTENT to which social policies effectively address the needs and risks associated with different life stages
• What is the quality of social protection determined by?

  • Comprehensiveness of coverage
  • Level of benefits provided
  • Service accessibility
  • Degree of social solidarity and equity in the distribution of resources
• When the welfare state expanded, what was it?

  The welfare state was the main political arena for resolving distributive conflicts

  • Created social compromises between different social groups
• Why is the welfare state no longer the main arena for resolving distributive conflicts?

  The fiscal challenges of population aging (1980s) disrupted continuous economic growth that underlied welfare state expansion
• Debates on welfare state sustainability assume what?

  Zero-sum distributional trade-offs: what one group gains, another loses
• What is a zero-sum trade off in population ageing?

  Powerful elderly voters are prioritized, leading to a pro-elderly bias
• Why is the pro-elderly bias assumed to be bad for welfare state legitimacy?

  This threaten's YOUNGER GENERATIONS welfare state legitimacy, leading to an INTERGENERATIONAL WAR: conficts between generations, appearing alongside social class divisions

  • Bryan Turner takes further: class divisions replaced with intergenerational conflicts
• To have positive-sum solutions, we need to do 2 things

  1. Move beyond the static perspective on social policymaking that have characterized debates on generational equity
  2. Stop focusing solely on patterns of social expenditure that have fuelled ideas of a generational clash
• 2 types of normative debates on generational justice

  1. Daniels's "prudential lifespan approach" of justice between age groups
  2. The ideal of relational equality
• Daniels's "prudential lifespan approach" of justice between age groups

  When considering issues about JUSTICE and RESOURCE ALLOCATION, we should consider the different stages and changing needs and capacities

  • Intergenerational cooperation improves everyone's life prospects
  • Cooperation depends on how welfare states distribute social rights
• The ideal of relational equality

  Places more emphasis on the RELATIVE POSITION of individuals in society and the CAPACITY to interact across the age groups as equals
• How should the 2 normative debates be viewed?

  As complementary approaches:

  • Prudential lifespan approach: Enhances WELL-BEING across generations through cooperation
  • Relational equality: Addresses socio-economic INEQUALITIES among age groups
• Perceptions of justice are based on the idea of what?

  Just savings: how to support the economic and social preconditions of just institutions from one generation to the next

  • Ensure resources and opportunities are passed to future generations in a fair way
• 2 main hypotheses of Birnbaum 2017 book

  1. Balanced generational welfare contracts provide more extensive social rights for all age groups and thus encourage positive-sum solutions
  2. More extensive social rights contribute to positive outcomes (e.g., lower poverty, higher subjective well-being, more trust)
• All WS provide social protection for age-related social risks, but they differ in what?

  The extent to which they address needs associated with different stages of life

  • e.g., Should we provide higher levels of protection for vulnerabilities arising at specific stages of life?
• What are challenges to the welfare state?

  • Aging populations + baby boomers retirement + declining birth rates
  • Dominance of neoliberalism
  • Economic crises → less able to support social cohesion (resurgence of class inequalities)
  • Generational cleavages, alongside social class, gender, and ethnicity
• Aging populations + baby boomers retirement + declining birth rates →?

  Revise retirement systems designed for different demographic conditions

  • Slowed economic growth → less economically active citizens
• Aging societies affect welfare states' capacity to fairly ______ resources across generations

  distribute
• What is the current deterministic scenario?

  • Welfare states are facing mounting pressures due to population aging, lower fertility rates, slowed down economic growth, etc.,
  • Scholars view major redistribution programs, like pensions, as unsustainable
  • IOs like the IMF and World Bank created policy documents to tackle this "old age crisis"