Attention, Inertia, and Equity in the Social Security Program

Bibliographic Data

ID6294337
AuthorsJames L True (Lamar University, corresponding author)
Year1999
Volume9
Issue4
Pages571-596
Publication date1999-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1053-1858 • E-ISSN: 1477-9803
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/oxfordjournals.jpart.a024423
OpenAlexW2332583914
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited10

Payments for Old Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance of Social Security constitute almost one-fourth of all the spending of the national government, and those payments are growing at an impressive rate. Social Security enjoys most of the mechanisms that bind future politicians to the preferences of the past, yet pressures for major changes continue to build. By applying punctuated equilibrium theory to Social Security, this article analyzes its propensity for periods of stability broken by major policy changes and redirections. The empirical record of Social Security since 1940 reveals both lurches and lulls in government attention and action. This analysis indicates that intergenerational tension between those who benefit from and those who pay for Social Security constitutes a potent source of the kind of policy punctuations called for by theory; however, the future of Social Security is not so bleak as one might suppose

Economics · Equity (law · Government (linguistics · Market economy · Payment · Political science · Public economics · Social insurance · Social policy · Social security · Transfer payment · Finance · Financial Literacy, Pension, Retirement Analysis · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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