The political future of social security in aging societies

Doubts about the ability of industrialized countries to continue to provide a sufficient level of retirement benefits to a growing number of retirees has fueled much recent debate and inspired a variety of recommendations for reform. Few major reforms, however, have actually been implemented. In The...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Galasso, Vincenzo
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Cambridge, Mass. MIT Press 2006
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: MIT Press eBook Archive - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
LEADER 02478nmm a2200313 u 4500
001 EB002069265
003 EBX01000000000000001209355
005 00000000000000.0
007 cr|||||||||||||||||||||
008 220922 ||| eng
020 |a 0262273373 
020 |a 9780262273374 
050 4 |a HD7091 
100 1 |a Galasso, Vincenzo 
245 0 0 |a The political future of social security in aging societies  |h Elektronische Ressource  |c Vincenzo Galasso 
260 |a Cambridge, Mass.  |b MIT Press  |c 2006 
300 |a xvii, 257 pages  |b illustrations 
653 |a ECONOMICS/Political Economy 
653 |a Social security / Forecasting 
653 |a SOCIAL SCIENCES/Political Science/Public Policy & Law 
653 |a Social security / Case studies 
041 0 7 |a eng  |2 ISO 639-2 
989 |b MITArchiv  |a MIT Press eBook Archive 
028 5 0 |a 10.7551/mitpress/5452.001.0001 
776 |z 0262072734 
776 |z 9780262072731 
856 4 0 |u https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/5452.001.0001?locatt=mode:legacy  |x Verlag  |3 Volltext 
082 0 |a 368.4/3 
520 |a Doubts about the ability of industrialized countries to continue to provide a sufficient level of retirement benefits to a growing number of retirees has fueled much recent debate and inspired a variety of recommendations for reform. Few major reforms, however, have actually been implemented. In The Political Future of Social Security in Aging Societies, Vincenzo Galasso argues that the success of any reform proposals depends on political factors rather than economic theory. He offers a comparative analysis of the future political sustainability of social security in six countries with rapidly aging populations--France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Using a quantitative approach, he finds that an aging population has political as well as economic effects: an older electorate will put pressure on politicians and policy-makers to maintain or even increase benefits. Galasso evaluates how each country's different political constraints shape its social security system, considering such country-specific factors as the proportion of retirees in the population, the redistributive feature of each system, and the existing retirement policy in each country. He concludes that an aging population will lead to more pension spending; yet postponing retirement mitigates the impact of this, and may be the only politically viable alternative for social security reform