The Potential for Intergenerational Political Conflict in Ageing Societies

• Department of Political and Social Sciences

In this seminar, Catherine E. De Vries (Bocconi University) will present the paper “The Potential for Intergenerational Political Conflict in Ageing Societies", co-written with Paula Rettl and Francesco Billari (Bocconi University).

Many advanced industrial societies are ageing. The share of people who are 65 and older is growing as the baby boom generation is ageing and fertility rates declining. As a result, the lion share of public spending is needed to cover pensions and health care for the elderly. At the same time, many pressing societal challenges, like climate change or increasing housing costs, disproportionality affect the younger generations. This has led public pundits and scholars to suggest that the young are part of a left-behind generation, and increasing the likelihood of political conflict over generational lines. Yet, intergenerational political conflict is currently muted: demographic change is slow-moving and as everyone grows older there should be some degree of instrumental interest and empathy with the elderly.

What is more, people are often rooted in family-based or other forms of communal networks, through which they engage, or might even depend on, people from older generations. This raises the important question of the conditions under which intergenerational political conflict may emerge in ageing societies. This study presents a theory of intergenerational political conflict (IPC) which suggests that IPC is a function of demand and supply side factors. On the demand side, IPC requires age-based polarisation, that is to say political polarisation in society increasingly structured by age lines. In this study, we theoretically argue and empirically substantiate that IPC requires that both the demand and supply side are met. It occurs when societal political polarisation is increasingly structured by age and this age-based polarization is ‘hot’, in the sense that is mobilised by political entrepreneurs. 

The speaker will be presenting on zoom and participants will receive the zoom link once registered. Participants can also follow the talk from Seminar room 2, although space is restricted to a maximum of 8 people on a first-come, first-served basis.