Political economy perspectives on disability and aging: Competing or complementary frameworks?
Brian R. Grossman, Sc.M.
Doctoral Student, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
University of California, San Francisco

Abstract:

Neo-Marxist/Neo-Weberian political economy has been employed by scholars both in aging policy and those in disability policy. However, these two literatures remain remarkably separate, despite overlapping sociopolitical concerns, including access to personal assistance services (PAS) to support community-based living, Federal prescription drug coverage, and debates over euthanasia and the right to die. This paper develops the connections between the political economy of aging and disability, respectively, and their utility in identifying corporate interests in the healthcare sector as a whole. The political economy of aging focuses on the theorizing of systematic oppression (on micro, meso, and macro levels) occurring within the ideology of the dominant class through attempts at privatizing government programs and the transnational power of the medical industrial complex. The political economy of disability focuses on: (1) the policy effects of expanding healthcare markets in general, and specifically the disability/rehabilitative markets, utilizing institutional theory; and (2) an analysis of the influence of capitalist class interests on the politics of state-supported eugenics and a broad range of public policies for people with disabilities including those around government-sponsored health coverage and employment. The paper concludes with a discussion of the utility of a unified framework and potential directions for future research.