The Emergence of Pensioners’ Parties in Contemporary Europe

Active Ageing in CIS Countries: Semantics, Challenges, and Responses

“…During the years of transition, in some CIS countries, those councils have become more involved in the advocacy work on behalf of older persons, and in Ukraine some of them used to be represented in the parliament [25]. Moreover, in the Russian Federation and Ukraine, the parties of pensioners were established, and the Russian Party of Pensioners even entered the national parliament in 1999 [26]. As noted elsewhere, pensioner parties appeared to perform somewhat more successfully in the postcommunist Central and Eastern Europe than in the west European democracies [26].…”

“…Moreover, in the Russian Federation and Ukraine, the parties of pensioners were established, and the Russian Party of Pensioners even entered the national parliament in 1999 [26]. As noted elsewhere, pensioner parties appeared to perform somewhat more successfully in the postcommunist Central and Eastern Europe than in the west European democracies [26]. The sporadic emergence of the new political and social organizations of older persons in the CIS countries during the post-communist transition can be driven by an abrupt collapse of welfare states and bottom-up attempts to replace them with self-help initiatives.…”

Ageing and Health

“…However, a study of voting patterns in Swiss referenda on specific social policy initiatives between 1981 and 2004 found that even after controlling for ideology, 'Older generations not only massively approve [d] improvements in the benefits they receive, but they also tend [ed] to reject social policy proposals aimed at improving the situation of the actively employed and of young families' (Bonoli & Häusermann, 2009, 13). While voting for pensioner parties is rare -pensioner parties have had very little success in most European countries (Hanley, 2010(Hanley, , 2013 -support for pensioner parties may also be interpreted as being linked to policy preferences favouring retirees. One study found that Dutch pensioner parties have captured voters who wish to advance their relatively well-protected position in the welfare state (Otjes & Krouwel, 2018, 41-2).…”

“…If mainstream parties have not reorganized around an age cleavage, neither have pensioner parties successfully replaced them as representatives of older voters. Pensioner parties have emerged in several European countries but have gained parliamentary representation in only two (the Netherlands and Luxembourg) and are generally negligible political forces (Bussolo et al, 2015;Gilleard & Higgs, 2009;Goerres, 2008;Hanley, 2010). Nor have the older people influenced policy as a bloc through other modes of political participation beyond voting.…”