Suchergebnisse

Die mittel- und osteuropäischen Staaten stehen vor dem Hintergrund der Transformationsprobleme und der aktuellen Wirtschaftskrise vor besonderen Herausforderungen, um eine bessere Integration älterer Arbeitnehmer in das Erwerbsleben zu erreichen. Die Verfasserin behandelt die Politikansätze der Regierung und der Arbeitgeberverbände und Gewerkschaften in Polen. Diese befinden sich noch in ihren Anfängen und es fehlt insbesondere an einer aktiven Unterstützung von Maßnahmen des Altersmanagements auf betrieblicher Ebene. Gefordert sind Sofortmaßnahmen, die sowohl Frühverrentungen einschränken als auch die Arbeitsfähigkeit älterer Arbeitnehmer erhöhen. (ICE2)

The new democracies in East Central Europe started the post-communist era with comparatively young populations. After 1989-1990, they have largely spurned a quarter-century long demographic window of opportunity for reform, by insufficiently adapting their policy models to prepare for predicted fast population aging ahead. Especially in Romania, Bulgaria and the Visegrad Four, this is reflected in low active aging and child wellbeing index rankings, relatively small social investment in early human capital, weak improvements in prospective old age dependency ratios, and large-scale emigration. Slovenia and the Visegrad Four, but not the Baltics, also became "pensioners' welfare states," with prematurely strong pro-elderly policy bias. In some cases, massive early exit worsened pension system unsustainability while boosting pensioners' electoral power (political push before demographic pull). However, around the time when the demographic window closed (2010-2015), the political salience of family policies, work-family reconciliation policies, and active aging policy increased, often spurred by the same Christian-conservative and/or nationalist-populist parties that caused significant democratic backsliding. But by then, the relative political power of elderly voters during elections in East Central Europe was among the highest in the world.

"This article deals with active ageing as a policy concept and its meanings in different cultures. We describe the Czech Republic and Poland, formerly communist states that experienced economic and political transitions in the 1990s and joined the European Union in 2004. Both countries are demographically similar, with ageing populations, but their understanding of active ageing as a policy issue are quite different. The methodology used was a meta-analysis of expert interviews and consultations. The results show that there is no comprehensive policy towards active ageing in Poland and the Czech Republic does not have an overall systemic vision based on the principles of active ageing. The debate on activity in old age focuses on labour market employment activity, neglecting most of the issues of social services, care-giving or just plain leisure. The lack of institutional mechanisms, fiscal limitations, discriminatory socio-cultural perceptions and an unfavourable economic climate have all constituted barriers to implementing active ageing strategies in the period analysed. However, it seems that the problem has been noticed and that demographic changes and the attitudes of the elderly in the future could bring forth a more wide-ranging discussion on active ageing." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

This article deals with active ageing as a policy concept and its meanings in different cultures. We describe the Czech Republic and Poland, formerly communist states that experienced economic and political transitions in the 1990s and joined the European Union in 2004. Both countries are demographically similar, with ageing populations, but their understanding of active ageing as a policy issue are quite different. The methodology used was a meta-analysis of expert interviews and consultations. The results show that there is no comprehensive policy towards active ageing in Poland and the Czech Republic does not have an overall systemic vision based on the principles of active ageing. The debate on activity in old age focuses on labour market employment activity, neglecting most of the issues of social services, care-giving or just plain leisure. The lack of institutional mechanisms, fiscal limitations, discriminatory socio-cultural perceptions and an unfavourable economic climate have all constituted barriers to implementing active ageing strategies in the period analysed. However, it seems that the problem has been noticed and that demographic changes and the attitudes of the elderly in the future could bring forth a more wide-ranging discussion on active ageing. Adapted from the source document.