Introduction

In the 1980s a debate erupted that was greeted as a policy nightmare for ageing advocates: namely, a claim, from conservatives as well as some prominent liberals, that older people were gaining too many resources at the expense of the young. This ‘generational equity debate’, as it was called, has not disappeared, but it has assumed new forms in different countries. Like ‘The Terminator’, justice between generations is an idea that will not go away. It is therefore the purpose of this chapter to explore both the recent history of this idea, and how it has come to shape contemporary political discourse in the 21st century.

In the 21st century, the challenge of justice between generations is not limited to competition between age groups but extends to a range of challenges that appear to put future generations at risk: how will pay-as-you-go social insurance systems adapt to rapid population ageing? Will the human impact on earth’s environment permit future generations to enjoy a life comparable to our own? Are governments allocating resources and establishing modes of taxation for sustainable economic prosperity in the future? Debates over generational accounting, global warming and demographic change are part of a larger history, dating back to Thomas Malthus and Edmund Burke, later revived by philosophers like Daniel Callahan and Norman Daniels, and posed again in the 21st century as we contemplate prospects of population ageing in planetary terms. In devising global policies for an ageing society of the future, the challenge of justice between generations assumes unprecedented importance on an historical scale, and encompasses both social expenditures for an ageing society as well as policies for environmental protection and fiscal integrity. Above all, the problem of justice between generations must be framed in terms of broad social values concerning ‘duties to posterity’ and our ‘image of the future’ (De-Shalit, 1995). Together, these ideas are conditioned by attitudes about optimism (progress) or pessimism (decline) with respect to things to come. These attitudes and assumptions become the basis for our concept of obligation to those generations, born and unborn, who will come after us.

The idea of progress

The prevailing ideology of the modern world, since the Renaissance, has been rooted in notions of optimism or faith in the future (Nisbet, 1994). The Renaissance understood its own time to be a ‘rebirth’ from what would become called the ‘Middle Ages’.