Faculty of Social Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
J Aging Stud. 2013 Dec;27(4):443-55. doi: 10.1016/j.jaging.2013.10.003. Epub 2013 Nov 7.
Older people increase their well-being and contribute to the community when they volunteer. Therefore, policy-makers sometimes consider supporting older volunteers. However, they reach different conclusions on whether they should introduce policies for older volunteers, and on what policy would be the most suitable. This article studies how policies for older volunteers emerged in Germany and Italy, both countries having one of the oldest populations in the world. It explores the political discourse on older volunteers, and how this discourse translates into policies. To do this, the article presents data collected in expert interviews and document analysis. Findings show that German policy-makers stress the contribution of volunteering to older people's well-being and have introduced policies for older volunteers. Italian policy-makers, in contrast, frame older volunteers as social service providers and have decided not to single out specific age groups in their policies for volunteers. Moreover, the policies are influenced by the policy-makers' perceptions and path-dependencies, meaning policies and institutions that were introduced in the past. These findings suggest that whether or not policies for older volunteers emerge depends less on the characteristics of the older population and more on the society and its political traditions.
老年人在做志愿者时可以增进幸福感并为社区做贡献。因此，政策制定者有时会考虑支持老年志愿者。然而，他们对于是否应该为老年志愿者制定政策以及哪种政策最合适存在不同的结论。本文研究了在德国和意大利这两个世界上人口最老龄化的国家中，老年志愿者政策是如何出现的。它探讨了关于老年志愿者的政治话语，以及这种话语如何转化为政策。为此，本文展示了在专家访谈和文件分析中收集的数据。研究结果表明，德国政策制定者强调志愿服务对老年人福祉的贡献，并为老年志愿者制定了政策。相比之下，意大利的政策制定者将老年志愿者视为社会服务提供者，并未在志愿者政策中单独针对特定年龄群体。此外，政策还受到政策制定者的认知和路径依赖的影响，即过去引入的政策和制度。这些发现表明，老年志愿者政策是否出现的决定因素更多的是社会及其政治传统，而不是老年人口的特征。
