Powell L A, Williamson J B
Int J Aging Hum Dev. 1985;21(2):81-6. doi: 10.2190/bbab-nn0r-u7v8-m3pe.
For forty years following the passage of the Social Security Act, the United States experienced a liberalization in public policy toward the aged. In the late 1970's, the momentum of this liberalization began to ebb, and by the early 1980's, a shift toward greater restrictiveness was underway. Scholars and journalists often discuss this Reagan-era shift as if it were a unique policy initiative. A case can be made, however, that this is just a recent example of a recurrent pattern of social policy reform and reaction in the history of American politics. This point is illustrated by placing the current policy shift alongside a historically remote period.
在《社会保障法》通过后的四十年里，美国在针对老年人的公共政策方面经历了自由化进程。20世纪70年代末，这种自由化的势头开始减弱，到80年代初，政策转向了更强的限制性。学者和记者经常将里根时代的这一转变当作一项独特的政策举措来讨论。然而，可以提出这样一种观点，即这只是美国政治历史上社会政策改革与反应的反复模式中的一个近期例子。将当前的政策转变与一个历史上遥远的时期并列比较，就能说明这一点。
