Periodization of the development of the social protection system: Contribution to the study of the recent history of social protection in the Republic of Srpska

Abstract

The social protection system in Republic of Srpska shares the fate of other areas of social policy. It emerged on the legacy of the institutional-legal and value system of the former socialist society, which developed under the influence of unfavorable social processes and frequent interventions by international institutions. War events that marked the creation period of the Republic of Srpska had a decisive influence on the practice and content of social protection measures, and the collapse of the old political and value system and its transition to the neoliberal ideological concept of 'the state's (not) caring for citizens,' created new and intensified already existing social problems. Under such conditions, the social protection system has faced a very demanding task, which refers to: How to provide social security to the socially most vulnerable members of society? The four stages in the development of this system are determined by the system's efforts to answer this question. The study of the development of the social protection system is a contribution to the understanding of the processes and content of the measures that the state has sought to improve the systematic care of the socially most vulnerable groups of citizens. It is an attempt to explain the current state of the system and its future development as part of a continuing process. It is also a contribution to the history of social work and social policy of the Republic of Srpska. The criteria used in the preparation of this periodization were related primarily to the state of the system, system solutions and the achieved level of customer support. Data periodization provides insight into the key moments that have determined the twenty-five-year development of the social protection system of the Republic of Srpska. During the analysis, available official documents of the institutions of the system were used, as well as reports of project activities of non-governmental organizations and personal testimonies of direct actors of events and creators of system solutions in the field of Social protection.