The Politics of Dependency Estimates
Social Security Board Statistics, 1935-1939
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12443232 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Brian Gratton (Arizona State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1997 |
| Volume | 52B |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | S117-S124 |
| Publication date | 1997-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journals of Gerontology Series B (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1079-5014 • E-ISSN: 1758-5368 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/geronb/52b.3.s117 |
| PMID | 9158568 |
| OpenAlex | W2130909025 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 8 |
State theorists maintain that Social Security Board (SSB) bureaucrats managed the evolution of public welfare. Institutional politics theory more readily accepts the influences of political interest groups. SSB archival records offer an opportunity to contrast these models and explore the early measurement of old age dependency. In reports designed to protect the 1935 Social Security Act, SSB staff exaggerated the extent of dependency among elderly persons. By 1939, Board statistics clearly showed that children were more impoverished than aged persons. SSB leadership did not repudiate prior estimates and they accepted rising transfers to aged persons, largely because of the political power of interest groups interested in flat pensions. While bureaucrats attempted to control events, an institutional politics approach better explains both the pivotal role of other, political actors and the solidification of the myth of old age impoverishment
Control (management · Dependency (UML · Economics · Management · Mythology · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Social security · Social Security Act · Sociology · State (computer science · Welfare · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Social Policy and Reform Studies · History · Law · Public Administration
A Hero for the Aged? The Townsend Movement, the Political Mediation Model, and U.S. Old-Age Policy, 1934-1950
Protecting Soldiers and Mothers
The Struggle for Judicial Supremacy
The Poverty of Impoverishment Theory
Not for Widows Only
Stolen Thunder? Huey Long's "Share Our Wealth," Political Mediation, and the Second New Deal
Theories Of The Welfare-State
Theories of the Welfare State
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,1 |
| Citation span | 1996 - 2007 (12) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |