About the Project
In the
coming years, European societies will increasingly feel the strains of
demographic ageing. On average, Europeans now live longer lives, have fewer
children and retire earlier than in previous decades. This, most experts
agree, will lead to a considerable imbalance between the generations from
about 2010 onward. More significantly, however, this imbalance is likely to
have profound effects on European labour markets, social protection systems,
health care systems, and societal integration as a whole. As a result, many
commentators argue that European social models, mainly based on Bismarckian
social insurance mechanisms, can no longer cope and that it is time for
radical structural reform, preferably along the lines of more market-oriented
systems.
Within
the last decade or so, policy-makers in most European countries have listened
to these voices and have, albeit to varying degrees, tried to ready European
social models for the challenges of demographic ageing. However, although the
arguments in favour of radically reforming European social protection systems
are persuasive (World Bank, 1994), there are limits to structural reform.
First, reform experiences of the past decade have shown that reforming social
protection systems, particularly health care and pension systems, is
politically risky (Pierson, 1994). Pension and health care systems based on
intergenerational solidarity have proven remarkably popular with European
electorates (Hinrichs, 2000; Pierson, 1996). Second, given that current
European welfare systems consist of large, well articulated, and networked
institutions, and given that these institutions are relatively inert, a
radical shift seems unlikely in the short and medium-term. Last, and most
importantly, it is not altogether clear that a radical departure from the
social insurance model alone is a panacea for the problems of demographic
ageing (c.f Orszag and Stiglitz, 1999; European Commission, 1999). In terms of
pension systems alone, studies have shown that policy measures aimed at
increasing retirement ages (e.g. raising the statutory retirement age,
introducing actuarial deductions for early retirement, etc.) have had a
relatively modest impact on early retirement (OECD, 1998). Moreover, the
potential implications of radical reform models for social justice and social
equity have been unpalatable for many European policy actors.
Quite
apart from potential policy problems, demographic ageing also represents a
unique opportunity for European societies. Present and future generations are
not only be in better health than ever before, they also have benefited from a
high levels of training and education. Rather than merely making claims on the
public purse, the elderly are increasingly in a position to make a valuable
contribution to European societies. One of the main challenges of demographic
ageing, then, is to tap into and activate this rich reservoir of human and
social capital for the benefit of European societies as a whole.
How,
then, are European policy-makers to face the challenge of demographic ageing?
Apart from reforms of the social protection and health policy mechanisms
themselves, many policy actors, particularly at the European level, have
argued in favour of a more broadly based policy approach. Rather than relying
on either conventional welfare state institutions or market incentives, these
policy actors, most notably the European Commission (1999), have called for a
more comprehensive policy agenda commonly subsumed under the buzz-word
“active ageing”.
However,
the OECD continues, more often than not older people encounter obstacles to
living an active life. These barriers include poor health, inflexible labour
markets and poor public policy. Active ageing policy,
then, is designed to overcome obstacles to active ageing.
Unlike
more traditional social policy, the active ageing agenda cuts across many
different policy arenas and involves a plurality of different policy actors.
For the labour market, active ageing implies convincing people to work longer
and adapting work environments to older people. This aim alone involves
providing access to training and new skills throughout an individual’s
working life as well as flexible retirement schemes at both the level of the
firm and the economy as a whole.
In terms
of social protection, active ageing policy means that pension schemes be
adapted to permit part-time work and gradual retirement. This approach, which
the Commission understands to be a more “productive” way of dealing with
ageing than the pension design debate, will affect individual and collective
retirement behaviour. On the one hand, policy-makers will need to change union
and employer practices. On the other hand, policy-makers will have to change
the behaviour of individual workers.
In the
health field, active ageing requires incisive changes to present health
practices at an individual and an institutional level. An active life in older
age, that is a life free of debilitating or disabling health problems, will
depend on how well individuals have ‘looked after themselves’. This, in
turn, emphasises the importance of increasing preventative health policy with
respect to current ameliorative practices. What is more, as increasingly more
people pass from the “third age” to the “fourth age”, the demand for
long-term care is likely to grow. An active ageing agenda needs to address how
societies and health care systems can organise and deliver effective long-term
care.
Finally,
active ageing also implies the co-ordination and co-operation of a multitude
of policy actors at different levels of governance. Since the idea of active
ageing cuts across the traditional boundary between the public and private
sector, active ageing and active ageing policies can never be the sole
‘property’ or responsibility of the public sector alone. Rather, enabling
an active life in old age for European citizens calls for close co-operation
between different policy actors within civil society. For active ageing
policies to be successful, state institutions will have to co-operate with
firms and with the plurality of organisations in the tertiary sector (i.e.
voluntary organisations or self-help initiatives). What is more, this
interaction will take place at all levels of governance. Whether or not
European citizens will be able to lead an active life in old age not only
depends on the type of policy frameworks in place at the European or national
level. Significantly, the success of active ageing policies will depend on
prevalent practices in firms, in hospitals, in education and in individual
households.
Active
ageing, then, is a very ambitious policy agenda. In effect, active ageing
policies aim at changing the way we perceive, understand and deal with old age
both at an institutional and an individual level. It will require a
co-ordinated approach across different policy arenas at multiple levels of
governance. Moreover, any successful active ageing agenda will have to take
into account existing public policies, diverse policy-relevant activities
within complex networks of private and voluntary organisations, and as well as
established institutional structures. Active ageing policies, whether at
regional, national, or European level, are always situated within specific
institutional, socio-cultural and political environments. In a very real
sense, existing European welfare state structures institutionalise norms and
practices related to work, retirement, learning, health, and, most
importantly, ageing. These socio-institutional environments represent
potential barriers but also opportunities
for formulating and implementing active ageing policies.
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Highlight
and explore means of overcoming barriers and seizing opportunities. The
ActivAge consortium will isolate and analyse instruments, structures and
policy practices that ‘work’ for active ageing policy agendas. Here, the
project will apply foresight methodology to ascertain areas in which increased
policy co-ordination across policy communities as well as across different
levels of governance promotes the successful implementation of active ageing
policies. In this way, the proposed project will point European and national
policy-makers towards ways of formulating and implementing effective active
ageing policies in the future.