Employing a political economy analysis of need as it relates to the ageing of the population in the context of the postmodern welfare state, this paper attempts to go beyond the narrow confines of the apocalyptic demography argument that an increasing dependent older population represents social and fiscal catastrophe. Older people are caught between a social ethic which values independence on the one hand, and, on the other, a service ethic which constructs them as dependent. This paper argues that this dichotomy between dependence and independence results from a depoliticisation of need, in part the legacy of a radical individualism combined with a postmodern therapeutic ethic. The deeper issues which lie at the heart of the apocalyptic demography argument have to do with issues of need, reciprocity, and community. This paper argues further that a moral economy of interdependence, based on the notion of reciprocity, transcends the dependency/independency dichotomy, repoliticises need, and thereby creates the possibility of a revitalisation of civil society.
