Nestrpnost in sistemi blaginje
Tensions in society and welfare systems

Summary/Abstract: A cohesive society is a society in which all its parts contribute to the collective social project and welfare, and where conflicts between social aims and groups are minimised. Along with other relevant factors, welfare systems have an influence on the cohesion of contemporary societies. Existing welfare systems such as the conservative-corporatist, social-democratic, liberal, catholic and former state-socialist types are based on different hierarchies of spheres (such as the market, state, civil society and community) from which we obtain resources for social protection and welfare. The consequences of these differences in the hierarchies are the different levels of decommodification in society. This seems particularly important for studying tensions in society as one of the perspectives of observing social cohesion since the welfare system’s characteristics influence the relations among different social groups. The article analyses the level of (perceived) tensions among the following groups: old and young, rich and poor, workers and management, men and women. In the framework of a comparative analysis among selected EU countries the authors try to show how the studied countries are classified according to the level of tensions in society and what is its relationship with the welfare systems established in the examined countries.

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