A Comparative Analysis of People's Views on Future Policies for Older People

Population ageing is one of the biggest structural changes currently affecting the development of all European welfare states. Countries have tackled these changes in different ways. In reaction to the global economic crisis, many countries have reformed their old-age pension systems and how they address the rising care needs. These changes are bound to influence how citizens view the welfare state's prospects and what they expect from it in the future in relation to policies for the elderly. The paper explores citizens' attitudes and expectations with regard to the future division of responsibilities for the provision of welfare for the elderly. The basis for the analysis is data gathered in a comparative European project adopting coordinated democratic forums as a methodology. We use the participants' views and expectations - as well as the reasons and arguments they presented-to shed light on the factors likely to shape future elderly care and old-age pension policies. We analyse four countries - Norway, Slovenia, Germany and the UK-belonging to four different welfare regimes and focus on the division of responsibilities between the state, the market and the family and the differences and similarities in priorities and subsequent arguments put forward in the four countries.