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Senior Interest Groups

Senior citizens (ôseniors,ö hereafter) are generally considered those aged sixty-five and older in the U.S. population. According to Day (1990, p. 3), this demographic ôhas grown twice as fast as the rest of the populationö over the past two decades and its growth will reach ôeven higher proportionsö as the ôbaby-boomerö generation reaches this age group. Over the past century, organizations that represent seniors have proliferated and thrived in American society. As Day (1990, p. 3) reports, there now exist ôàmore than one thousand aging-based groups in the United States at the national, state, and local levels,ö which is not including thousands more local chapters across the nation.

Historically and at the present time, seniors have enjoyed more political influence and have benefited more from government programs and services more than other ôin-needö groups. However, while polls demonstrate seniors are a ôpopularö and ôlegitimateö recipient group with Americans, an attitude is growing that ôthe elderly are too powerful, and their programs too immune to the budget cuts necessary to eliminate federal deficit,ö (Day, 1990, p. 3). This analysis will argue that the elderly have not grown too powerful nor their programs too immune from budget cuts. Rather, the powerful interests groups purporting to represent seniors are often those who are too powerful and too immune to political influence.

Perhaps the reason powerful interest groups stand behind most national, state, and even local organizations purporting to represent the elderly is because of the inherent nature of the interdependence of politics, money, business, and social groups in the U.S. legislative process. Day (1990, p. 4-5) argues, that the ôàinfluence that interest groups have over policy, the factors leading to their creation and survival, and the accuracy with which they represent citizensÆ interests are important to the study of int...

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Senior Interest Groups. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 18:31, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1709894.html