The demographic revolution has caused turmoil in public policy, leading governments to scale down their commitments to the old, more in panic than in thoughtful response. At the same time, significant changes in family patterns have placed at risk the inter-generational support older people might have expected. Together these structural shifts have stimulated a new debate about the obligations one generation has to another. This essay attempts to bring together the several discrete debates about demography, family and the generational contract. In juxtaposing gerontological evidence and discussions with those about moral order and the state of the social contract in ‘post-modern’ society; it reaffirms the need for personal and social solidarity as the foundation for trust and reciprocity between generations.
