Why was the Senior Movement in the US Successful?

The Sociological Viewpoint on the NPO-Social Movement Relationship

Abstract

The senior movements in the US had been successful in many ways. During the 1960s and 70s, they achieved many political successes, such as Medicare and Medicaid (1965), Older Americans Act (1965), and the 1978 and 1986 amendments to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Why had these achievements been made? Several studies pointed out that nonprofit organizations such as AARP played an important role in senior movements. Thus, this paper discusses several questions : Why did AARP cooperate with social movement organizations such as Gray Panthers and political organizations such as NCSC? Based on what reasons did they form coalitions among them? This paper discusses that the reasons were supplemental and complemented functions among themselves. AARP had several advantages and disadvantages for the social movements, and vice versa. For example, AARP had a large membership (36 million in 2006), thus also representing the seniors in the US. Moreover, they had strong lobby activities toward issues related to seniors not only at the Federal but also at the State legislatures. However, being restricted by NPO laws, AARP could not take direct political action or conduct political campaigns. AARP had the need to form coalitions with the social, labor, and political movements. This paper focuses on AARP and analyzes the critical role played by NPOs in organizing the seniors. According to Ralph Kramer's analytical framework, AARP had unique social functions for the seniors, so they acquired legitimate status as senior representatives in the US. This paper concludes that senior movements might occur anywhere in the aged societies in the near future, and NPOs must play a critical role. It is also important that sociologists pay adequate attention to the study of the relationship between NPOs and the social movements that are organized to facilitate the welfare of the aged in society.