ABSTRACT
Political economy has emerged as the fashionable perspective of social policy rhetoric and debate in the analysis of old age. In Britain Phillipson (1982), Townsend (1979, 1981) and Walker (1980,1981, 1982) among others have stressed the importance of inequalities throughout the economic, political and social structures which have fostered the growth of ‘structural dependency’. Rooted firmly in the sound tradition of Fabian sociology they have amassed substantial evidence justifying their hypotheses and suggested a variety of social policies intended to reduce inequality in old age. This structural perspective has also been undertaken in Europe (Guillemard, 1982) and North America (Estes, 1979; Dowd, 1980; Myles, 1980) but within the context of the differing welfare systems operating in these countries. This kind of analysis has become known as the political economy of old age.
