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Dr. Elmar Stracke

Position
Policy Fellow
E-Mail
info@zentrum-neue-sozialpolitik.org

Dr. Elmar Stracke is a policy fellow at the ZSP and currently works as head of policy in the Strategy and Policy Department of the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW).

For several years, he has been working on the topics of age(ing), pensions, and demographics—including as part of his doctoral studies. For his dissertation at the University of Bayreuth, “The calendar age limit in the pension system: Arbitrariness or Equality?“ he was awarded the 2023 Research Prize by the Research Network on Old-Age Provision (FNA). In his podcast ”Alter, was geht?” (Age, what’s up?), at science slams, and in guest articles, he communicates the findings of his work in an easily accessible way. In the past, Elmar Stracke has worked as a research assistant at the Hertie School and in the German Bundestag, among other positions.

Question
01

What motivates you to think about this topic?

The distribution issues that arise in rapidly aging and shrinking societies are completely new in human history. I am interested in how we can fairly distribute work and care, power and representation, burdens, duties, and the fruits of society in the face of demographic change and heterogeneous life courses in order to secure long-term prosperity and freedom. To do this, we need to take a step back and ask ourselves what is important to us and where we want to go, instead of continuing along the old paths as a matter of course. Because in the worst case, these paths lead to the worst of all worlds: for example, to a pension system that costs a large part of the national budget and yet means old age in poverty for many.

Question
02

How would you like to use the fellowship?

Social progress can only happen when scientific findings resonate in political discourse. I am delighted that this fellowship will give me new opportunities to contribute to this translation process. The resources and network of the ZSP will enable me to bring even more perspectives and ideas to pension policy debates and to draw on the political, scientific, and media spheres. We can only gain by talking and arguing more about this important and sometimes uncomfortable topic.

Question
03

What is your vision for our pension system?

The good news is that we are all living longer. The bad news is that we are all living differently. A large proportion of us live very long, very healthy, and very prosperous lives. However, many die early and are poor and frequently ill along the way. The central task of the welfare state is not to cement status differences through sophisticated bureaucracy, but to prevent hardship. This is the view of sufficientarianism, which I favor. The core of the pension system should therefore be a uniform, poverty-preventing, and unconditional basic pension, as is the case in the Netherlands, for example. This is significantly leaner, significantly cheaper, and saves debates about what should be included in the “lifetime achievement” to be rewarded. Status differentiation, on the other hand, can be achieved through private investments or company pensions. The state can and should promote this. But there is no moral claim to state differentiation of status.

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