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The Politics Of Aging And Rural Social Services: An Exploratory Analysis, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The advent of federal funding for rural social services during the late 1960s and 1970s brought about changes in the political organization of rural America. A host of new organizational actors, like Area Agencies on Aging and various local aging agencies were created in rural communities across the country, in the wake of Baker v. Carr with its “one man/one vote” principle and funding through programs like the Economic Opportunity Act and the Older Americans Act. This article details a leadership succession model suggesting that local leadership of aging interests went through at least four distinct phases during this time: …