Senior power or senior peril : aged communities and American society in the twenty-first century /

Bramlett (Albright College) employs social science techniques to explore the empirical prevalence of two phenomena that have become journalistic tropes: "senior power" and "senior peril." The first portrays seniors as efficacious political actors; the second portrays seniors at risk economically and politically. Analyzing seniors' and younger citizens' political behavior in reference to the number of seniors in their local "contextual" areas, she examines the possible impact of social interaction (contact and discussion partners) and cognitive content (elder-related information flows) upon political behavior. Employing several national surveys and multivariate quantitative analysis, her findings are mixed. Those aged 65-74 have higher levels of political information in areas populated by seniors. Both younger and older citizens residing in communities for older people evidence more support for safety-net policies. However, younger and older citizens in such communities show lower levels of political efficacy and do not vote at higher levels than those not in communities for aging people. In sum, neither "senior power" nor "senior peril" is demonstrated unambiguously by her analysis. The book contributes some modest additional findings to a topic sure to be of increasing importance in American politics in coming years. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate, research, and professional collections. --Steven E. Schier, Carleton College