ten - The individual approach in activation policy in the Czech Republic

Summary

Introduction

The ‘Active Welfare State’ concept (Giddens, 1998) has become the guiding principle of the welfare state's paradigmatic change, with ‘activation goals’ permeating ever deeper through all its domains. The change is explicit particularly in the European Employment Strategy (EES), although the meaning of ‘activation’ may be understood differently (see Chapter Two, this volume). The above-mentioned paradigmatic change within the welfare state is, however, not as yet reflected in the post-communist countries, where more converse tendencies can be seen. On the one hand, the social changes under way in these countries include ‘activation’ of citizens and generate the need for activation strategies within the welfare state. On the other hand, the unfavourable economic conditions and inadequate capacity of public institutions often make the implementation of the objectives and measures difficult. The strategy of market transformation implicitly contains, among other things, citizen education towards individual responsibility, even by means of economic incentives. It also implies the need to cultivate citizens’ human capital as a precondition for their future productivity. At the same time, transformation means new social risks that must be absorbed, which in turn necessitates new expenditure (see Offe, 1996).

Considering these circumstances, risk-absorption efforts have so far centred primarily on redistributive and compensatory tools. ‘Activation’ measures – particularly active labour market policies – have been lagging far behind the EU countries (see Cazes and Nešporová, 2003), primarily owing to insufficient resources and staff capacity necessary for their effective implementation. However, compensatory strategies do not seem effective in the fight against new social risks. Public expenditure has increased, employment has declined and unemployment is high in the post-communist countries of central Europe, often accompanied by increasing threats of poverty and social exclusion. Such a situation then forces political representations into taking unpopular short-term steps (such as curtailing social benefits, particularly unemployment benefits, tightening conditions of early retirement and adopting other public finance reforms); as well as longterm measures aiming at paradigmatic change according to the principles of activation – in line with the EES guidelines. At the same time, activation strategies in post-communist countries are likely to assume specific forms depending on their respective ideological discourses and notions of activation strategy, as well as their specific institutional environments and processes of implementation.