The New Politics of Old Age Policy

Extract

The New Politics of Old Age Policy, Robert H. Hudson, ed., Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2005, pp. 309.

The New Politics of Old Age Policy presents a collection of essays devoted to the policy and political challenges related to population aging in the United States. This book will be of particular interest for those seeking analyses of Social Security and health policies (especially Medicare and Medicaid). With the exception of a few texts, most contributions are rooted within the discipline of sociology, focusing on how current policies and reform proposals accentuate (or decrease) traditional cleavages based on gender, race and occupational status. With few references made to current debates surrounding the “new” politics of the welfare state, the engagement with the political science literature is quite limited. Unfortunately, most chapters do not seek to engage in debates outside the US borders, limiting this book's appeal in Canada (the chapters written by Myles and Teles are noticeable exceptions). Nonetheless, this book represents a good text for an upper undergraduate and/or graduate comparative course on old age policy for those seeking to study the United States.