Abstract:

Old-age policies have accounted for the major expenditures on social services in industrialized countries since 1960, & have become the critical issue in the crisis of the welfare state. The French case is used to interpret the present & future difficulties of old-age policies, which derive not only from the decreasing ratio of active to inactive population, but from lesser economic growth & rising unemployment. In addition, they are a symptom of a deeper social & cultural crisis in consensus about transfers favoring the elderly. Public intervention in old-age matters lacks rationality. The state's policy of not employing aging workers contradicts its policy for socially integrating the aged; it has also distorted the retirement system. This crisis of rationality has been accompanied by a crisis of legitimacy. Doubts are growing about the legitimacy of a model of retirement that is imposed on, rather than chosen by, older, though not elderly, persons. This diagnosis of the crisis of old-age policies leads to reflection on the future of the welfare state. Rather than just ensuring financial equilibrium of pension funds, a new social model of aging should be formulated.