ON THE CAUSES AND DIRECTION OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LITHUANIAN SOCIAL POLICY MODEL AND ITS GUARANTEES

• Authors: Guogis Arvydas , Bitinas Audrius

Abstracts

EN

In general, the article analyses the direction of the development of Lithuanian social policy model and, in particular, it analyses the social security guarantees in social insurance pension system. The authors stress the relationship between social security system and well-known concepts of social justice, welfare state and New Public Management. At the same time they are related to new concepts of social reintegration, social quality and New Governance, which can be more applicable in the world of the 21st century when certain aspects of globalization, neoliberalism and capitalism have exhausted themselves. The economic crisis of 2009 in Lithuania demonstrated the necessity for newly founded approaches that would prevent the country from moving to lower positions of development. In its administrative practice, the country is still facing such persisting problems as the lack of social justice, growing asymmetrical information in administrative practice (especially in the sphere of community and non-governmental relations with municipal and central authorities) and the possibility of a societal and social conflict. The Lithuanian social policy model is gradually drifting from the bismarckian-corporative model to the liberal-marginal one, especially after private pension funds reform and New Public Management elements have been introduced in the provision of social services. However, after these reforms the social conditions for Lithuanian citizens did not improve. The Lithuanian funded pension system reform of 2003 reduced social solidarity and state social insurance pension guarantees. Market fundamentalists expose marginal groupsí problem as depending solely on themselves and do not see the significance of the state in solving it. They do not stress the necessity of the larger scope of social security and social workersí work performed in order to reintegrate marginal groups into normal life, in comparison with “usual inhabitants”. During twenty years of its independence, considering such indicators as high inequality level, high suicide rate, short lifespan, clientism, etc., Lithuanian social system has obtained the face of ìinhuman nature.î High level of unemployment and emigration are still considered the main economic and social problems of the country. It is obvious that the worsening social conditions and inequality rates in Lithuania persisted even during the long GDP rise period from 2001 to 2008. The main social security object in Lithuania is the old age pension system. It is necessary to start a new complex reform of the system, the main goals of which are: to refuse privileged pay-offs, gradually raise retirement age, revise all social security system pay-offs, balance the proportion between the ones paying contributions and the ones receiving pay-offs, balance the budget of the social security fund, revise volumes of social security contributions (for instance, to apply health insurance contribution to pensions), change unemployment social security and early pensions system etc. State pension system creates a higher quality social security than private pension schemes. The goal of the pension system is to ensure sufficiency of pensions. Therefore, obligations of the state to the participants of the pension system should not be reduced. Establishing independent permanently operating institutions responsible for revision of the pension system or assessment of its course may help consolidate the management of the pension system. The pension system design must be focused on the economic-mathematical methods and not on political decisions.

Keywords

EN

social policy model; pensions; social quality; social justice; welfare state; New Public Management; social reintegration; New Governance

• Publisher: Daugavpils University, Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Journal: Sociālo Zinātņu Vēstnesis
• Year: 2012
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 108-123

Contributors

author

Guogis Arvydas

author

Bitinas Audrius

Identifiers

ISSN

1691-1881