Nové inštitucionálne črty sociálneho štátu na Slovensku
New Institutional Features of Welfare State in Slovakia

Summary/Abstract: The emerging welfare states in Central Europe have generated diverse views on their nature. They have been frequently described as a peculiar mixture of (Western) welfare state models, or as an outcome of path dependency (communist legacy). The aim of this paper is to contribute to current debate, focusing on institutional development in the selected sectoral policies in Slovakia. Authors also examine the impact of „activation” discourse in the EU social policy debate on shaping ideological currents underlining recent social reforms in the country. Despite obvious limitations of mainstream welfare state classifications to capture changing nature of welfare state regimes in Central Europe, authors describe the emerging welfare state in Slovakia as diverging from universalism and leaning towards basic security with salient features of targeted welfare state model. Main idea of this exercise is, however, to pinpoint possible (negative) consequences of such development for social cohesion.

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