IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v23y1986i12p1251-1260.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Policy intellectuals, class struggle and the construction of old age: The creation of the Social Security Act of 1935

Author

Listed:
  • Brents, Barbara G.

Abstract

Studies in the political economy of aging criticize social policies for the aged for reinforcing class inequalities and doing little to help many aged persons, yet few use this perspective to explore policy development. Estes' critique of dominant conceptions of aging is the starting point for this study of the historical development of the U.S. Social Security Act. When the conflict between capital and labor is placed at the center of analysis, we see that conceptions of aging as inevitable physical and mental decline, and the subsequent institutionalization of retirement, emerged early in the 20th century from work place conflicts over changes in the production process and worker productivity. The Social Security Act embraced those conceptions of the 'problems' of aging most consistent with the needs of capitalist industry, and issues involving class struggles were redefined as issues of biological aging and decline. This paper explores the dynamics of this process and the role of businessmen and policy intellectuals. Understanding class struggles over the definition of problems is just as important as understanding class struggles over particular policies. Focusing on problem definitions also allows us as researchers to see how we may unwittingly reinforce the inequalities we struggle to overcome.

Suggested Citation

  • Brents, Barbara G., 1986. "Policy intellectuals, class struggle and the construction of old age: The creation of the Social Security Act of 1935," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 23(12), pages 1251-1260, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:23:y:1986:i:12:p:1251-1260
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277-9536(86)90287-X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:23:y:1986:i:12:p:1251-1260. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.