Provider: - Institution: - Data provided by Europeana Collections- The subject of this dissertation is the impact of social conditions on the creation and implementation of social rights in Serbia, at the turn of the 20th in 21st century. In the last few decades laws and public policies in the field of social rights are in the process of deep changes with far-reaching social consequences. The aim of this dissertation is to identify the impact of social factors on the creation and implementation of social rights in the social context marked by two global processes (globalization and post-socialist transformation). Social factors (determinants) whose effect we analyze are the state, the market and values, while elites and middle classes are the actors whose activities and interests we analyze. Globalization is a complex social process of increasing interdependences between societies and states. Globalization has significant social consequences– for example, increased global economic competition leads to the emergence of some of the so called new social risks. In addition to profound social change, globalization brings with it a new ideology, to which we refer as a mixture of (neo)liberalism and globalism. The new ideology is based on the ideas of individual responsibility for personal welfare, reduced role of social solidarity, changing roles of government, individuals and private sector in social policy and subordination of social process to economic logic. State capacities and powers of national states are weakened due to globalization, especially in the world periphery. Many responsibilities are moved to the supranational (e.g. integration within the EU) and regional and local levels of government (as part of the process of decentralization). Vacant space that emerged after the retreat of the state was filled in by international actors. Among them, in the field of social rights important roles are played by the World Bank, the UN with its agencies, bilateral donors, international NGOs, and the European Union. They actively influence the creation of public policies and laws through technical and financial assistance (in the form of loans and grants) offered to developing countries, including Serbia. The social context that frames our analysis is also composed of the postsocialist transformation. This term denotes the process of structural changes of former socialist societies: transition from command to market economy and one-party system to democracy and their reintegration into the world system. Post-socialist transformation was marked by the decline in GDP, and growing poverty and inequalities. In many countries, these negative effects were soon minimized, while in Serbia, after a decade of blocked and then decade of slow transformation, they are still present. For our discussion the following consequences are important: widespread poverty (which poses a great social pressure for public policies and legislative solutions) and collapsing institutions and changing social values (which have a negative impact on reestablishing the rule of law and restoring confidence in the laws and their ability to effectively regulate social processes). In Serbia, as well as in other former socialist countries, post-socialist transformation is also marked by the conversion of public resources into private, which helped the old "socialist" elites transform into the new political and economic elite. Support for social changes was limited mainly to the middle classes and slowly spread across society. This set of social and political factors was the impetus for the development of a series of redistributive policies (economic, monetary etc.). Within this context and under the influence of these determinants laws and public policies were formulated. The transformation of social rights and public policies is in line with global trends that we analyze: marketization (growing share of private sector in services in the field of social policy, commercial strategies of the public sector and outsourcing services to private sector), undermining mechanisms of social solidarity and shifting responsibility to individuals and their individual strategies (public services designed to support individual proactive strategies rather then to reduce the negative effect market mechanisms) and, finally, the subordination of social sphere of the economy (e.g. education system is understood primarily as a tools for preparation for entering the labor market). Here we notice ideological dominance of neoliberal ideas and residualism in social policy. In Serbia, important role was played by international actors such as international organizations, transnational corporations, EU etc. They have contributed to the economic (e.g. tax) policies and concrete solutions in the field of social rights. International development partners (international organizations and bilateral donors) have played a vital role in the creation of laws and public policies in the field of pension insurance, health and social care, etc. by providing financial and technical assistance directly or conditioning recipient state to adopt certain policies. The space for the international influences was relatively large due to collapsed institutions and a large outflow of skilled personnel (as a consequence of postsocialist transformation) and reduced role of the state (which is either a consequence of real political and legal processes or it is based on influence of neo-liberal ideology and the assumption that the declining of the power of the state is inevitable and that political and management processes ought to internationalized). The new government and elites had to reinforce social support they received through generous redistributive policies (in economic policy, labor market policies, monetary policies, etc.). Social rights and social policies have been created to respond to the interests of the middle class, rather than lower social classes. This is consistent with trends we have documented: social reforms require the consent of more influential middle class. Public policies in the fields of education, health and labor market contain very few mechanisms to support the most vulnerable residents. Specific institutional environment influenced certain laws and public policies in the fields of education, health and social protection. For example, the structure of public administration and political system does not support multi-sectoral programs. Or, a network made up of professional experts, ministry officials and representatives of international organizations influenced the decision-making process in the case of Law on social protection (they are characterized as sub-elite because of their influence on the shaping of social institutions and processes). The implementation of laws is also affected by the variety of social conditions. Our analysis was conducted on the example of the Law on Social Protection and points to differences in interpretation of laws that influence its application in a particular social (that is, local) context. After the consensus about specific law is reached by the local community or a network of experts, politicians and officials, the degree of implementation depends on a number of non-legal factors. Developed municipalities have more welfare services, which indicate that a process of relativization and contextualization of social rights is underway. To what extent some social rights will be realized also depends on the political influence of the group (so there are more services for the elderly than for Roma) and the degree of organization of groups (so there are more services for people with disabilities than for Roma). The implementation of law takes place in a social environment characterized by regulatory informalism and legal and moral cynicism. The regulatory informalism refers to a major role of informal networks, informal channels of communication, negotiation and decision making, prominent roles of distinguished individuals as opposed to institutions in decision-making and law enforcement. The legal cynicism refers to rejection of the validity of legal norms, willingness to justice violations of laws and lack of expectations that the law will be applied. These are the characteristics of social and political networks within which application of law takes place but also a feature of legal culture in Serbia. In the context of western societies, analysis of the process of application of laws is based on the assumption that laws are valid, hey ought to be applied and there is a rule of law (positive myth of the rule of law). In Serbia, this is not the case and according to many indicators (level of law enforcement, judicial independence, control of public authorities, etc.) there are shortcoming in establishing and maintaining the rule of law. All formal preconditions for the rule of law are in place, but their full implementation is difficult due to the strong social and political interests. Similarly to democracy, establishing and maintaining the rule of law requires a balance of powers and interests that is also framed by a set of meta-legal ideas (on natural law and human rights). Establishing and maintaining the rule of law requires specific social preconditions, that is, specific social interests that will support and maintain the rule of law. Detailed analysis shows that Serbia does not have it and that in the recent history it has failed as well in establishing powerful capitalist classes and numerous and influential middle classes.- Predmet ove doktorske disertacije je uticaj društvenih uslova na stvaranje i primenu socijalnog prava u Srbiji, na prelasku iz 20. u 21. vek. U nekoliko poslednjih decenija u oblasti socijalnog prava menjaju se zakoni i javne politike sa dalekosežnim društvenim posledicama. Cilj ovog rada je da u društvenom kontekstu oličenom u dva globalna procesa (globalizacija i post- socijalistička transformacija) identifikuje utic