REDEFINISANJE SAVREMENE SOCIJALNE POLITIKE – ZAOKRET KA KONCEPTU SOCIJALNOG ULAGANJA
REDEFINING CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL POLICY – SOCIAL INVESTMENT SHIFT

Summary/Abstract: Over the past twenty years, the process of reforming national social policies in Europe has been marked by the debate on the possibility of social welfare provision, i.e. „welfare sustainability“ in the context of radical demographic changes, budget constraints and increasingly neoliberal demands for reducing the role of the state. In the context of current social policy debates, the traditional welfare state is unable to respond to the economic, social and demographic changes that have taken place in contemporary societies, since deindustrialization, rising unemployment, population ageing and globalization have limited, to a considerable extent, the ability of the state to meet the needs of its citizens through comprehensive social policy measures. In this regard, there are growing demands that traditional welfare state, with its focus on consumption, income transfers and welfare recipients passivation, should be replaced by the „new welfare state“ – social investment state. A shift to social investment state is reflected in the changing focus of contemporary social policy – from compensation programs to social investment, i.e. human capital investment. This approach implies that national social policies are oriented towards „preparing“ individuals, families and society in general for the various social and economic risks that they may be facing, instead of „repairing“ its consequences (Morel et al., 2012). Beside outlining and analyzing the concept itself, the aim of this paper is to show the extent to which social investment shift is made in the contemporary social policy, as well as in which policy areas its impact is most evident.

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