POLITICS OF AGE . INTEREST GROUP OR SOCIAL MOVEMENT

THIS paper is directly concerned with those old age political organizations existing prior to the 1935 Social Security Act. The primary question to be examined is: Were old age political organizations, as interest groups, responsible for the enactment of income maintenance legislation, or was this legislation the product of broader concerns deriving from social movements that were not agebased? We find that there are two perspectives taken. One, expressed by Cottrell (1960), Rose (1962), Tibbitts (1962), and others, views the impetus for legislation pertaining to the aged as arising from the aged themselves but the pressure for enacting legislation as emanating from non-age based organizations. The second perspective, taken by Holtzman (1963), and borne of comparative analyses, views both the impetus and the pressure as emanating from the aged directly, as an interest group. The former perspective is one expressing a social movement interpretation whereas the latter adopts the interest group interpretation. © 1969, Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.