Barriere e opportunità all’implementazione di politiche di invecchiamento: una prospettiva comparata europea

Demographic ageing threatens to unravel European social protection systems and labour markets in the not too-distant future. Welfare state reform is called for across policy domains yet remains controversial. How can European societies safeguard social rights without endangering the financial sustainability of welfare systems? Two paradigmatic ideas have guided our research, namely, those of ‘productive’ as compared to ‘active’ ageing. The productive ageing paradigm postulates that the problems posed by demographic ageing can only be coped through longer working lives. At the same time, the universal benefits associated with the modern welfare state need to be reduced, i.e. the insurance principle should be strengthened at the expense of the re-distributive principle. The alternative ‘active ageing’ paradigm considers the solutions proposed by the ‘productive ageing’ paradigm as both short-sighted and inadequate. While recognising the necessity to promote longer working lives, it considers that the main barrier to this is age-related discrimination. Older or ageing people must be recognised as active citizens and promoted as such – in the labour market, in health care and in community activities. Hence the emphasis of the ‘active ageing’ paradigm on senior citizenship Despite the uptake in most countries of the ‘senior citizenship’ discourse (even if not always the term ‘active ageing’) in special reports, inquiries, research programmes or pilot policy programmes, a closer examination of related reforms at the level of specific policy domains shows that we are far from meeting the requirements of a substantive policy reform as foreseen by the active ageing paradigm and recommended by the European Commission’s Communication Towards a Europe of All Ages (1999). This is the case for labour market policy, pension policy and health policy. Mentality is changing at an even slower rate within the private sector. Instead we may observe the consolidation of the efficiency paradigm that is directed towards rationalisation and budgetary discipline.