The goal of this commentary is to highlight the ageism that has emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 20 international researchers in the field of ageing have contributed to this document. This commentary discusses how older people are misrepresented and undervalued in the current public discourse surrounding the pandemic. It points to issues in documenting the deaths of older adults, the lack of preparation for such a crisis in long-term care homes, how some ‘protective’ policies can be considered patronising and how the initial perception of the public was that the virus was really an older adult problem. This commentary also calls attention to important intergenerational solidarity that has occurred during this crisis to ensure support and social-inclusion of older adults, even at a distance. Our hope is that with this commentary we can contribute to the discourse on older adults during this pandemic and diminish the ageist attitudes that have circulated.

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Older people are especially vulnerable to COVID-19, including and especially people living in long-term care facilities. In this Perspective, we discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on long-term care policy in Canada. More specifically, we use the example of recent developments in Quebec, where a tragedy in a specific facility is acting as a dramatic "focusing event". It draws attention to the problems facing long-term care facilities, considering existing policy legacies and the opening of a "policy window" that may facilitate comprehensive reforms in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Patrik MarierÉcole nationale d'administration publique, MontréalRecent scholarship on budgeting in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries indicates that political institutions impact the level of budget discipline. Building upon this previous research, we argue that the principal problem that must be addressed in both the government and the legislature to insure strong fiscal discipline is the common pool resource (CPR) problem. At the cabinet level, the CPR problem arises because ministers consider the implications of decisions on their ministries only. The level of the CPR problem in the legislature depends upon the electoral system. Using a data set of LAC countries for the period 1988-97, we find that executive power in the budget process is most effective in reducing budget deficits when electoral incentives for the personal vote is high in the legislature, while strengthening the president (or prime minister) in countries where the personal vote is low in the legislature has no effect.

Abstract:Background: Population aging and longevity in the context of declining social commitments, raises concerns about disadvantage and widening inequality in late life. Objective: This paper explores the usefulness of the concept of precarity for understanding new and sustained forms of risk and vulnerability in late life. Method/Approach: The article reviews the definition of precarity, its uses in a range of scholarly fields including social gerontology, and argues that the concept be extended into considerations of aging and late life. Analysis: We argue that a broadened lens of precarity that is inclusive of aging, time, and care, can be used to situate risk in the economic and political context. Further, that doing so, challenges individual notions of risk, and demonstrates how vulnerabilities not only accumulate, but change at the moment of needing care, in the context of austerity. Discussion/Implications: We conclude that contemporary conditions of austerity and longevity intersect to produce and sustain risk and disadvantage into late life. The concept of precarity thus holds potential to draw attention to disadvantage carried into late life, and render visible new forms of vulnerability that affect late life. Highlights (for Journal of Aging Studies):• Reviews definition and key uses of precarity • Explores the potential of the concept of precarity at three locations • Argues for the extension of precarity into late life • Suggests that precarity is different as a result of care in the context of austerity

This paper analyzes the Canadian pension retirement incomes by focusing on gender and immigration dynamics. Our findings demonstrate that elderly women living alone and post-1970 immigrants face very strong likelihoods of having to rely on the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS), the means-tested component of Canada's pension system, which is an indication of poverty and of their restricted capacity to maintain an autonomous household. The strong reliance of both public and private earnings-related pensions accentuates the disparities found within the labour market causing both women and immigrants to have lower earnings. The latter group also suffers from residency requirements attached to both basic pension programs (GIS and Old Age Security).

This article has two key objectives. First, despite having been considered as a key element to favor the expansion and elaboration of the welfare state in industrial countries, bureaucrats have been largely ignored by the “New” Politics of the Welfare State. This article demonstrates that bureaucrats still matter in times of retrenchment, because they can facilitate or obstruct various phases of the policy process. The degree of independence of the bureaucracy vis‐à‐vis the government, the government's level of dependency  and  trust  on  public  expertise, the locus of ministerial power, and political deadlocks contribute to either accentuate or decrease the influence of the bureaucracy in the retrenchment of social policies. Second, these elements are analyzed via a comparison of the pension reform processes in France and Sweden. This article argues that the French bureaucracy, despite its high degree of centralization and powers, has been far less successful than its Swedish counterpart. The Swedish institutional structure, the predominance of social ministries in pension affairs, and the trust given to an independent agency account for this puzzling outcome.

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