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About three-fourths of the world?s population live in the Asian region. At the same time, these countries are, to varying degrees, facing rapid demographic aging, fostering a stark increase in the absolute number of older people as well as in their percentage of the population as a whole. By the end of the twenty-first century, slightly over fifty percent of the world?s population aged sixty and over, and nearly 40 percent of those aged eighty and over lived in Asian nations; this is projected to rise to 57 percent and 48 percent, respectively, over the next twenty years. This paper analyzes elder care in various Asian nations, focusing on the role of the state, cultural and religious values promoting filial obligation, and the place of non-governmental organizations; the availability and types of retirement systems, medical care, nursing homes and long-term care community services; and the impact of rapid economic growth and Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs) on the needs of older people and their care givers. The paper also addresses the relationship between political institutions (i.e., type of regime, strength of parties, presence of interest groups and organized labor, etc.) and the emergence and nature of a nation?s social welfare provision. In addition, it discusses the gender-based dimensions of poverty and economic inequality among the aged in developing Asian countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the thesis that Scottish Labour, under the new system of devolved government and operating under different institutional and political pressures, may evolve in a programmatic direction distinct from that of the Labour Government in London. Under devolution the Scottish Executive has direct responsibility for issues of health and education. Given Scotland’s more robust collectivist traditions, and a pattern of party alignments that tilts more strongly to the left what are the prospects of social democracy of a more classical stamp taking root and flourishing north of the border? The paper explores this question by means of a case study - the implementation by the Scottish Executive in 2001 of free personal care for the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes various trade-off effects of the elderly pension policy on other welfare programs and government expenditure at the county-city level in Taiwan. The trade-off effects caused by the elderly pension policy contain full trade-off and partial trade-off effects. Full trade-off effect occurs when the expenditure of elderly pension exclude other welfare policy expenditure. Partial trade-off effect occurs when county-city governments disperse its financial burdens over different administrative branches or search other financial resources to cover its new elderly pension policies, in order to reduce the negative impacts on existing programs. After comparing the welfare expenditure and the total expenditure of five selective cases, this paper finds that in terms of the full trade-off effect, the adoption the elderly pension policy has crowded out the expenditure spending on the weakest in mobilizing interests or expenditure less attractive to the public. In terms of the partial trade-off effect, this paper finds that the elderly pension policy has excluded other administrative expenditure and has created serious debt problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT. We assess the link between a program’s volunteer support and state social capital in the case of the joint implementation of the federal Long-Term Care (LTC) Ombudsman Program by state and federal authorities. This program, which is designed to prevent elder abuse and ensure quality care in long-term facilities, is implemented at the state and local levels and relies heavily on volunteer staff. First, we find that volunteerism is vital to the efficacy of the program’s monitoring and investigative functions. Second, we find that volunteerism in this program is tied to broader level conditions of a state’s social capital. Last, we discuss the implications of our findings for volunteer-based programs devolved to the states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hurricane Katrina laid bare the inabilities of state and local governments to handle immobile citizens—children, the elderly, ill and disabled persons in hospitals, and institutionalized individuals—in emergency situations. This research, based on a mail survey of a wide array of Florida county and city officials conducted in the Spring of 2007, examines how local government officials have incorporated immobile special needs populations and the agencies that serve them into their emergency management plans (natural disasters; terrorist acts). The study concludes that there is still a lack of attention to children and the disabled and an absence of established networks with private sector agencies serving these populations. The research demonstrates the usefulness of controlling for the type of jurisdiction, population size, and the type of position held by local government officials in gaining a better understanding of how these factors influence vulnerability assessments. We find significant differences in assessments among first responders and their more generalist counterparts. In general, those individuals serving in first responder capacities were more likely to identify the spectrum of population vulnerabilities as of "major" importance to emergency planning efforts. First responders are more familiar with the challenges associated with managing immobile populations and are therefore more likely to prioritize their importance when it comes to emergency preparedness. In addition, first responders in both counties and municipalities rate the quality of their interactions with public and private sector agencies serving immobile populations more highly than non-first responders. Because of their functional responsibilities, first responders tend to have better networks in place with those agencies providing services to the immobile. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]