Limits of local self-government in the provision of “personal” social service in Slovakia

Abstract

Social services provide a person with intervention and care from society. By activating a person through the use of social services, an individual reintegrates into social functioning, where he finds his natural place and thus, through his actions, the society keeps developing. Conceptually and competently, local self-government has suitable conditions for its citizens to provide social services that respond to their needs, as well as taking into account how the citizens' needs are concretized and what the demand for them is. Here, however, there is a need for research and analysis of demand, which the municipality should carry out in search of the types and forms of social services that it wants to effectively provide for the citizen. The aim of the article is to determine; what are the limits of municipal self-government in providing "personal social services" in Slovakia. The research was focused on identifying the most common problems and the demand for social services in relation to municipalities. In the 5 author's questionnaires, we focused on the hierarchy of the number of problems expressed, which most often led to the municipal self-government-the executive body of the municipality, the mayor. On the hierarchy of the most common problems, sets of questions and items were compiled for their solution by the municipal self-government. The results showed that mayors are limited by law in the provision of social services, but are not able to provide social services for the category of unemployed in terms of citizen activation.