The peculiarities of foreign models of the welfare state caused by modernization processes have been elucidated. The modern political concept of welfare state models has been created. The main tendencies in the development of the welfare state under the circumstances of modern globalization challenges have been defined. The parameters of the long-range national welfare state model have been traced on the basis of the analysis of the Ukrainian welfare state formation processes.

Changes of the meaning of „social justice” concept in the face of the welfare state purposes

Since the 40’s of the nineteenth century the term “social justice” has played an increasing role in political reflection. The main subject of this paper is a meaning ascribed to the idea of “social justice” in the face of goals of welfare state. From this point of view very important are various senses of the notion. It can be distinguished in this area at least two related aspects. The first refers to characteristic of the justice itself. It can be described as a virtue, norm or right. The second one applies to the particular type of justice identified with social justice. In this respect relevant are: legal, distributive and retributive (or commutative) justice. Aside from that, social justice is also treated as an idea of equality or solidarity in social environment.

According to Anthony Giddens, the state of social investment was to be the third way between neoliberalism and the post-war welfare state, the quintessence of a future-oriented approach in which the state becomes an entrepreneur. In this concept, state expenditures are perceived as a form of investment in human capital and understood as positive prosperity. The implementation of the state of social investment entails the phenomenon of citizenship of responsible risk recipients. In the literature on social investments, the reflection is repeated that this model is the result of the need to respond to the radically changed economic and social order, including the challenges of a globalized knowledge-based economy. The model encourages active participation in the search for solutions for social structural changes, such as aging population, changing the family model or the labour market. Despite the fact that the social investment model is based on the free market perceived as the most suitable for the organisation of societies, this is no longer the so-called inexorable market. It emphasizes the need for government intervention and targeting market forces to improve both economic and social performance. The aim of the article is to verify the thesis about the investment paradigm of social policy between free-market mechanisms and the welfare state, two extremely different interpretations of contemporary socioeconomic reality.

Artykuł opisuje dwa przypadki rozwoju państwa opiekuńczego (welfare state): polski i izraelski. W obu przykładach mieliśmy do czynienia z przejściem z etatystycznego państwa opiekuńczego do modelu neoliberalnego charakterystycznego dla państw anglosaskich. W przypadku Polski dokonało się to częściowo, w przypadku Izraela w stopniu znacznie większym. Analizując rozwój welfare state na wskazanych przykładach, spróbowano także odpowiedzieć na pytanie o przyczynę kierunku tych przemian.

The article describes the commodification process, focusing on the sphere of labour. The specificity of the approach consists of treating labour as a component of the systemic transformation of the Polish society. The Polish people, on their way from real socialism to market democracy, are undergoing a particularly intense commodification process. This process has been intensified by Poland’s accession to the European Union and by globalisation, due to participation in supranational market systems at the regional (European) and global levels. Empirically, the commodification process has been analysed using awareness studies. Subjects were young inhabitants of Warsaw with higher education, and the study results were additionally related to nationallevel research. The labour sphere is seen here as a key element of the wider social reality and it is studied empirically in terms of individual orientations which the subjects exhibit towards normative social models. The processes of commodification and decommodification are seen in the context of the systemic transformation from centralisedautocratic to the marketdemocratic models of society. Attention has also been paid to the role of the welfare state, whose key function is to protect citizens from major risks, including the risk of being unemployed. The empirical study clearly shows the specificity of labour in commodification processes. Labour was shown to be an element that stands out from the other elements of the social system.

It was a daunting task before the Nehru-led government to frame a suitable policy of governance for secluded North-Eastern states which were completely separated from the mainstream British India. Due to the historical background as well as the geographical location of the region the government of India has long been tried to integrate the North-Eastern states with mainland India keeping social and cultural institutions of that region unaltered. With the continuous pursuance of protective and proactive role by the government growth scenario of the North-Eastern states has turned out to be satisfactory. Per-capita income has also been growing at a moderate rate and poverty both in absolute and relative term and inequality are declining. However, the worrying factor is that growth is pronounced where government is acting as principal economic actor. In addition, most of the North-Eastern states have demonstrated very poor fiscal condition and solely relying on central assistance. Economic integration sought under a decentralised development model on the failed promise of bringing equitable development across the North-Eastern states has acted as an incentive to raise the demand for special constitutional arrangements, separate state or country based on ethnicity or identity. Finally, occasional use of coercive forces, doling out of funds, and providing autonomy without accountability are the adhoc measures often used by the state to settle the unsettled culturo-social and politicoeconomic issues rooted in the Indian soil based on the notion of the abortive post-colonial Indian nationhood. Resultantly, the grand Indian nation state would certainly suffer from hyper-paranoia and a dreamer for “welfare state” will continue to be interrogated amidst the quagmire of movements based on identity and ethnicity.

The paper sets out to deconstruct two concepts featuring in the title. Firstly, a novel definition of the welfare state based on economic ownership is presented, used then throughout the paper to examine the facts behind the widespread view of the welfare state finding itself in a crisis. Upon scrutiny, it turns out that empirical evidence to support the thesis under investigation is weak at best; neither globalisation nor Europeanization bring about any significant quantitative or qualitative worsening of welfare parameters. In addition, it is imperative not to put all the welfare states into one bag, as they in fact represent a plethora of diverse social-protection regimes.

The article examines the essence of the concept of a “service-oriented state” in the context of digitalization in Western Europe and identifies the peculiarities of its implementation in Ukraine. The concept of a service-oriented state involves a change in the approach to public sector management and transformation of the principles of relations between public authorities and citizens. The service approach in public administration primarily involves the introduction of information management technologies aimed at improving the quality of public services, enhancing social protection of the population and, ultimately, creating effective social security. The priority task of the state is to create conditions for self-realization of individuals, ensure their individual freedom and rights, and provide public services that would meet the needs of citizens. Modern digital technologies are significantly changing our lives, namely the way we produce products and services, methods and forms of education, and affect the social structure of society, the economy, politics, and the development of socio-cultural institutions. Ukraine’s priority task is to create a service-oriented state in which digital technologies would create conditions for self-realization of individuals, their individual freedom and rights, provision of quality public services, and effective social security.