The politics of ageing : longevity and social change in Australia
Elizabeth Ozanne
The University of Melbourne
Contact Email:   eaounimelb.edu.au

The emergence of the ‘ageing enterprise’ in Australia since the mid 1980’s has paralleled increasing international and government initiatives in response to population ageing and the need to mediate rising cost and social pressures by active government intervention. Classified as a neo-liberal welfare state with some corporatist leanings, Australia has responded to population ageing with a specific set of policy interventions designed to regulate and recalibrate its economy in the light of these shifting economic and social demands (Productivity Commission 2005/7). As a federated parliamentary system with considerable concentration of power at the federal level, the major challenges of population ageing have been central to prime ministerial and electoral politics in recent decades and have, as well, been actively driven and mediated by key public agencies that have tended, along with their political masters, to have had primary agenda-setting power. The process of policy elaboration that has occurred over several decades has had a major effect in mobilizing institutional interest groups, voters and citizens around the issues of an ageing society. It is argued that the politics of an ageing society have been essentially government and policy led rather than being a direct response to mobilization of aged individuals, interest groups or the aged vote. The chapter explores the nature and sources of power in an ageing society and some of the reasons why a ‘grey power’ thesis is difficult to substantiate (Skocpol 2003).

Paper Download Information (if available):

Copyright © 2007 Social Policy Research Centre.