The innovative feature of this edited comparative volume, unlike most other comparative social policy collections, is to be found in the chapters jointly authored by experts on the two countries, the United Kingdom and Germany. The core chapters cover recent developments in the major social policy areas affecting older people, though topics such as the design of the built environment, housing and mobility are embedded in a chapter on the ‘silver economy’ and are not accorded chapters in their own right. The editors' earlier report on the theme, Ageing and Social Policy: Britain and Germany Compared was published by the Anglo-German Foundation, which has provided the very necessary support for sustaining this comparative approach (Naegele and Walker Reference Naegele and Walker2002). The preface to this book under review rightly warns that the world does not stand still and developments since 2006 may not have been covered. Writing in 2009 in the shadow of the global financial crisis, the editors are to be commended on identifying the possible threat of stock-market volatility ‘and the risk this creates for those with private defined-contribution pensions’ (p. 8). The preface also states that the book is a ‘unique comparative survey of the major policy issues confronting Britain and Germany as their populations age’ (p. xiv). Whilst its coverage is much broader than Clasen's (Reference Clasen2005) comparative work on income protection, retirement pensions and family policy, the absence of any reference to this author in the bibliography is a surprise.
The editors' opening chapter sketches in the current and future demographic profiles of the two countries, including the ageing of the overall population, a little more marked in Germany than the United Kingdom (UK). One clear contrast identified was the relatively recent development of services for older migrants in Germany compared with longer established, though not necessarily adequate, services in the UK. That may be so, but this reviewer has recently failed to unearth a single piece of sound research with clear policy implications on the experience of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) elders in care homes in the UK (as opposed to the United States). The bulk of the opening and closing chapters cover the themes of the core contributions, namely employment and the labour market; income, poverty and wealth; health and health care; nursing and social care; housing; social networks and social support; social and political participation. The editors suggest that an overarching conceptual framework for the book reflects the familiar debate on different welfare regimes (Esping-Andersen Reference Esping-Andersen1990). This is not the case for all the contributions and in the closing chapter the editors remark upon similarities, such as the policy responses to demographic ageing, despite the different traditions stemming from Bismarck and Beveridge.
All the contributions are useful for students new to comparative social policy work, as the authors provide a detailed overview of late 20th- and early 21st-century policy issues, usually outlining developments in each country followed by a commentary. The chapter on BME elders is the only one that goes beyond a passing reference to the European Union as well as domestic policies. At the level of detail, there are a few blemishes in the referencing, not uncommon in an edited volume. Perhaps the most startling is the imaginative relabelling of the UK's Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions as the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (pp. 234, 272). But let me end by recommending this volume to students interested in comparative social policy and to researchers debating the framework within which comparative social policy should be studied.
