Towards an Integrated Social Policy in Post-December Romania: Between Aspiration and Reality

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The study highlights the new trends in public social policies of preventing marginalization risks for vulnerable groups and individuals, concomitantly with shaping social/community responsibility for a programme of sustainable social change and development. On the background of some theories about the interdependency and complexity of human needs, these new policy directions attempt to mitigate major issues regarding the social development and normal community integration requirements for the members of the society. The present analysis focuses on the political and ideological principles required for promoting some integrated public social policies required for increasing quality of life. A synthetic review is made as regards the profile of social policies in Romania after 1990. The analysis of 30 years of transition highlights a distinct profile of social policies in the framework of the “selected models of country”. The evaluation of the governmental strategies will pursue the impact of public social policies on some vulnerable categories with high marginalization risk. The analysis attempts to identify actual types of risks in relation with the profile of the beneficiaries and their approach by the governance depending on the political options. A long-term time horizon will be considered along with a short-term one for emphasizing the distinct profiles of the public policies, specific to the post-December governments. During the last years, a new trend of social development emphasizes increasingly more frequently in Europe the need of major objectives for a programme of economic growth in agreement with the social and human requirements. Thus, those stages of “economic development per se” by disregarding “human presence” could be exceeded. Therefore, the new EU direction for sustainable economic development is centered on “socially inclusive economic growth”. As such, the new trends within public policies take account also of a wide sphere of non-economic social factors, corresponding proper to the multidimensional profile of the quality of life and human development.