U.S. Aging Policy Interest Groups: Institutional Profiles

(Hardback)

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Description

This reference book defines the work of major organizations in the United States concerned with public policies that affect 30 million elderly Americans today. In-depth analyses of the strategies, programs, and publications of eighty-three national non-profit and non-partisan groups give an overview of citizen work on behalf of the aging and the aged. A brief history of organizational development and a listing of pertinent national legislation provides important background information. Directories of other important organizations, a selected bibliography, a full index, and cross-references make this volume easy for students, professionals, and citizen activists to use. Entries are arranged alphabetically--each entry contains sections on the origin and development of the group, its organization and funding, policy concerns and tactics, electoral activity, and publications and sources for further information. This volume joins a series of references that deal with the formation of public policy among different interest groups in the United States.

Reviews

Suggest to a candidate for national office campaigning in Florida that Social Security benefits ought to be cut and the swiftness and strength of the almost certain denial is a barometer of the strength that senior citizens and their policy advocacy groups wield in today's complex political equation. Yet, as the introduction to the profiles of eighty-three independent organizations states, the groups' interests are diverse, and on the national scene some federal programs for the elderly have indeed been rolled back. Some of the organizations emphasize health care, others the interests of federal retirees, and still others the protection of Social Security benefits; some serve those professionals who provide services to the elderly and the family members who care for them, and a few even promote taxation of Social Security benefits and increasing the eligibility age for benefits. Each of the signed profiles lists the organization address and phone and fax numbers, states its purpose, relates its origins and development, describes its organization and funding, discusses its policy concerns and the tactics used to further that agenda, and describes its publications. Many of these organizations are, of course, listed in the Encyclopedia of Associations (Detroit: Gale), but sans the depth and analysis present here. Surprisingly few of them appear in Public Interest Profiles, 1992-1993 (Washington: Congressional Quarterly, 1992). For these reasons and because the graying of the population promises to intensify debate over issues relating to senior citizens, the value of this well-edited, well-indexed guide is likely to increase as it ages.-Wilson Library Journal
This work will be a valuable source for libraries that have an emphasis on aging or that support academic programs with this emphasis.-ARBA
"This work will be a valuable source for libraries that have an emphasis on aging or that support academic programs with this emphasis."-ARBA
"Suggest to a candidate for national office campaigning in Florida that Social Security benefits ought to be cut and the swiftness and strength of the almost certain denial is a barometer of the strength that senior citizens and their policy advocacy groups wield in today's complex political equation. Yet, as the introduction to the profiles of eighty-three independent organizations states, the groups' interests are diverse, and on the national scene some federal programs for the elderly have indeed been rolled back. Some of the organizations emphasize health care, others the interests of federal retirees, and still others the protection of Social Security benefits; some serve those professionals who provide services to the elderly and the family members who care for them, and a few even promote taxation of Social Security benefits and increasing the eligibility age for benefits. Each of the signed profiles lists the organization address and phone and fax numbers, states its purpose, relates its origins and development, describes its organization and funding, discusses its policy concerns and the tactics used to further that agenda, and describes its publications. Many of these organizations are, of course, listed in the Encyclopedia of Associations (Detroit: Gale), but sans the depth and analysis present here. Surprisingly few of them appear in Public Interest Profiles, 1992-1993 (Washington: Congressional Quarterly, 1992). For these reasons and because the graying of the population promises to intensify debate over issues relating to senior citizens, the value of this well-edited, well-indexed guide is likely to increase as it ages."-Wilson Library Journal

Author Bio

DAVID D. VAN TASSEL is Elbert J. Benton Professor and Chair of the Department of History at Case Western Reserve University. He is the author of Old Age in a Bureaucratic Society (Greenwood Press, 1986), among a number of other works. JIMMY E.W. MEYER is a former librarian and a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at Case Western Reserve University.