SPECIAL INTERESTS OR CITIZENS RIGHTS - SENIOR POWER, SOCIAL-SECURITY,AND MEDICARE

Conventional political analysts and mainstream media accounts attribut e substantial political power to the elderly in the United States. Thi s attribution of ''senior power'' is usually made in the context of th e politics of Social Security and Medicare. This article contrasts the conventional construction of elderly political actors as a special in terest with a more critical perspective that views Social Security and Medicare as citizens' rights. Critical examination of the welfare sta te's role in creating age as a potential political cleavage and the po litics of Social Security and Medicare reveals that there is no undiff erentiated politics of aging in the United States. Rather, age interac ts with a variety of other statuses such as race/ethnicity, gender, an d class to condition citizens' political mobilization. Welfare state p olicies-social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare, m eans-tested programs like Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income, a nd targeted tax expenditures for private pensions and health insurance -differentially empower particular subgroups of elderly citizens and r outinely disadvantage the most vulnerable elderly, including minority elders, women, and the oldest old.