Ageing of the Population – A Social Policy Challenge

U prvom dijelu rada autor iznosi zapažanja o demografskim procesima i starenju stanovništva. U drugom dijelu prezentirani su osnovni podaci o starenju koje determinira produljenje ljudskog vijeka, s jedne, te smanjene stope demografske reprodukcije, s druge strane. U nastavku se iznose projekcije o starenju stanovništva u Hrvatskoj i Europi u narednim desetljećima. U trećem dijelu raspravlja se o javnim politikama usmjerenim na prevladavanje i ublažavanje posljedica starenja stanovništva. Riječ je o konceptu aktivnog starenja, reformama u mirovinskom i zdravstvenom sustavu te sustavu skrbi o starima. Na kraju, autor se osvrće na neke aspekte budućeg međugeneracijskog sporazuma koji se treba temeljiti na paradigmi usklađenoj s promjenama okolnosti u kojima ljudi danas žive.In the first part of the paper the author makes observations about the demographic processes and ageing of the population. In the second part some basic data about ageing that determines prolongation of life cycle are presented on one hand, and the decreased rates of demographic reproduction on the other. The second part of the paper outlines the projections about the ageing of the population in Croatia and Europe in the following decades. In the third part of the paper public policies focused on overcoming and mitigating consequences of the population ageing are discussed. These include the concept of active ageing, reforms in pension and health systems and the system of the care for the elderly. Finally, the author reflects on some aspects of the future intergenerational contract that should be based on the paradigm adjusted with the changes of circumstances in which people live nowadays

Social Policy Reforms in Croatia

The author analyses data about the present social situation in Croatia and the state of social policy reforms. The indicators of social situation are very unfavourable as a result of a decade of dramatic changes: very high level of unemployment, high percentage of retired persons, growing social inequality, permanent financial crisis of social security systems. In the second part of his paper the author describes recently initiated or planned social policy reforms in the sectors of old age pension systems, health care, protection of the unemployed, social welfare, family policy, labour market and education policies

Mutualism and Social Welfare Organizations

Mutualizam se razvio u prvoj etapi razvoja industrijskog društva, kada su se, uslijed raspada tradicionalnih oblika solidarnosti, radničke obitelji suočile s mnogim socijalnim rizicima i nedaćama. Mutualističke udruge pomagale su svojim članovima u prevladavanju teških životnih situacija, ali su imale i druge funkcije. Sindikat, a kasnije i država, javljaju se kao konkurencija mutualističkim udrugama. Socijalno osiguranje kao stabilniji način prevladavanja socijalnih rizika potiskuje i marginalizira mutualističke udruge

The Croatian village: balance and perspectives

The author analyzes conditions in the Croatian village at a time when many fundamental changes are taking place in Croatia and when the social future must be planned in the light of those changes. He draws the following conclusions: (1) In Croatia the peasantry, as the peasant class, disintegrated and was replaced in the village by several social strata, more or less connected with land ownership. However, within this »remnant of the peasantry« the stratum of modern market farmers is emerging, and they are expected to transform the backward agrarian structure. (2) The size of the family farm has not undergone any essential change and mechanization, and other facets of modernization, have introduced a certain degree of tension that must, in a certain number of farms, lead to production and physical expansion. (3) Rural social groups lost their basic mark of autarky and have become more or less integrated into the overall social tissue. This was contributed to most by several waves of urbanization that spread from cities to the rural area. However, urbanization marginalized great rural areas, and it is an important national task to reintegrate them into the life of the country. (4) Many villages suffered badly in the war for the homeland and their renewall will be hard and demand scientific preparation. (5) In this crisis period the Croatian village can cushion social upheaval, but it will be a terrible mistake if, because of the needs of the whole society, the village is made to carry too great a burden which will block its already incipient transformation

Factors of Change in Privately Owned Agriculture and the Association of Farmers

The socialization of agriculture is a great goal of the Yugoslav agrarian policy, and much attention is payed to scholarly research work in that field. The authors of this article analyze changes that take place in privately owned agriculture, and are important for socialization, in the first place for the increase of socially owned land and the association of private farmers. They study changes in the number of agricultural inhabitants, changes in the ownership structure of the private farm, the social structure of the owners of agricultural land, mechanization in private agriculture, opinions of farmers on land ownership and the socialization of land, etc. The conclusion they draw from this analysis is that the small Yugoslav farm is in a crisis, and that it is difficult for it to adapt to new conditions imposed by technological and economic development in agriculture. Most farmers thus see the need for changes in the agrarian structure, which mean the increase of socially owned land and the association of private farmers. Socialized farms, cooperatives and other economic subjects occupied in agriculture must make use of these favourable circumstances to speed up the process of socialization in agriculture, which has been lagging behind in Yugoslavia for a decade and a half

USA - Liberalism, Philanthropy and Roosevelt’s Social Reforms

Autor iznosi osnovne činjenice o razvoju socijalne politike u SAD do Drugog svjetskog rata. SAD su zemlja najveće imigracije u svijetu. Britanski imigranti koji su prvi doselili dali su temelje američkog načina života, koji obilježava duh liberalizma, individualne slobode i poduzetništva. To se odrazilo i u socijalnoj politici. Dugo je u SAD primjenjivan britanski Poor Law, ali na američki način. U 19. stoljeću razvila se filantropija, a tek je gospodarska kriza krajem dvadesetih i početkom tridesetih godina ovog stoljeća uzrokovala jaču državnu intervenciju u socijalnoj sferi. Bilo je to u doba Rooseveltova New Deala. Najznačajniji zakon kojim se u to vrijeme nastoje prevladati glavni socijalni rizici jest Social Security Act iz 1935. godine

The Expected Trends in the Pension System of the Republic of Croatia in the Period up to 2040

Ovaj prilog dio je opsežnog teksta u kojem se definira strategija razvitka mirovinskog sustava, a koji je dio šire studije “Strategija razvitka mirovinskog sustava i sustava socijalne skrbi”, koja je rađena u okviru projekta Vlade Republike Hrvatske “Hrvatska u 21. stoljeću”. Vlada je ovaj dokument usvojila u svibnju 2002. godine, a o njemu je u lipnju 2002. godine raspravljao i Hrvatski sabor. U prvom dijelu strategije razvitka mirovinskog sustava raspravlja se o dosadašnjim kretanjima i krizi mirovinskog sustava. U drugom dijelu riječ je o uspostavi prvog, drugog i trećeg mirovinskog stupa prema već započetoj mirovinskoj reformi. Nadalje, u narednom razdoblju predviđa se uvođenje temeljne nacionalne mirovine (nulti stup), četvrtog stupa za stare, nemoćne ljude te izjednačavanje mirovinske dobi za muškarce i žene na 65 godina do 2018. godine, o čemu se također govori u strategiji. U drugom dijelu dokumenta, a kojeg ovdje objavljujemo, riječ je o kretanju broja osiguranika i umirovljenika, udjelu mirovina u plaći, strukturi i kretanju prosječne mirovine, tranzicijskom trošku mirovinske reforme, udjelu i strukturi mirovinskih izdataka u BDP-u, a sve to do 2040. godine. Radnu skupinu koja je priredila strategiju razvitka mirovinskog sustava, činili su: prof. dr. sc. Željko Potočnjak (voditelj), mr. sc. Snježana Plevko, Ljiljana Marušić, Ivan Jergović i Željko Tufekčić.This paper is a part of the extensive text that defines the strategy of the pension system development, which is part of a wider study The Strategy of the Pension System and Social Care System Development made within the Government\u27s project “Croatia in the 21 st Century”. The Government adopted that document in May 2002, and the Croatian Parliament discussed it in June 2002. The first part of the strategy of the pension system development discusses the current trends and the pension system crisis. The second part considers the establishment of the first, second and third pillar in accordance with the already initiated pension reform. Furthermore, the introduction of the basic national pension (the zero pillar) and the fourth pillar for the elderly and the infirm are anticipated and the levelling of the retirement age for men and women at the age of 65 by the year 2018 is also mentioned in the strategy. The second part of the document, which is published here, deals with the trends in the number of insured persons and retired persons, the share of pensions in the salary, the structure and trends of the average pension, the transition expenditure of the pension reform, the share and structure of the pension related expenditure in the GDP up to 2040. The following persons were members of the work group that had prepared the strategy of the pension system development: Prof. Željko Potočnjak, Ph.D. (group leader), Snježana Plevko, MS, Ljiljana Marušić, Ivan Jergović and Željko Tufekčić

The Croatian Pension System: Origins, Evolution and Perspectives

U prvom dijelu rada autor se bavi počecima hrvatskog mirovinskog sustava koje nalazi u mirovinama vojnika i državnih službenika, bratinskim blagajnama nastalim u 19. stoljeću te u mirovinskom osiguranju zaposlenika u prvim hrvatskim bankama početkom 20. stoljeća. Nakon Prvog svjetskog rata, 1922. godine u monarhističkoj Jugoslaviji usvojen je Zakon o socijalnom osiguranju radnika kojim se regulira mirovinsko osiguranje radnika. Međutim, taj zakon nije primijenjen sve do 1937. godine. Mirovinsko i drugi oblici socijalnog osiguranja sustavno se uvode nakon Drugog svjetskog rata. U institucionalnom i financijskom pogledu mirovinsko se osiguranje postupno decentralizira i prenosi u nadležnost tadašnjih republika. Kriza mirovinskog sustava, koja je bila prisutna na kraju razdoblja socijalizma, produbljena je tijekom Domovinskog rata i postsocijalističke tranzicije. Ona se prvenstveno ogledala u problemima financiranja mirovinskih fondova i pada razine mirovina. Pred kraj devedesetih izvršena je tzv. mala, parametarska mirovinska reforma, kojom je racionaliziran postojeći mirovinski sustav. Godine 2002. počela je djelomična kapitalizacija mirovina, dakle, radikalna promjena mirovinskog sustava. Mirovinska je reforma, povezana s promjenama u društvu, uzrokovala nove probleme u prvom stupu međugeneracijske solidarnosti. Nakon »mirovinskog duga« nastalog u prvoj polovini devedesetih, a koji se postupno vraća, danas je aktualan problem tzv. »novih mirovina«, ostvarenih nakon 1999. godine, koje osjetno zaostaju za starim mirovinama. Autor ističe da će budući razvoj mirovinskog sustava biti determiniran gospodarskim razvojem, a posebno zapošljavanjem. Također predviđa da će Hrvatska korigirati postojeći mirovinski sustav, mijenjati neke njegove parametre (npr. dob odlaska u mirovinu), a isto tako rekonstruirati njegovu institucionalnu strukturu, prije svega uvođenjem temeljnih mirovina.In the first part of the paper, the author deals with the beginnings of the Croatian pension system, tracing it to the pensions of soldiers and civil servants, guild coffers that emerged in the 19th century, and the pension insurance of the employees of the first Croatian banks in the beginning of the 20th century. Following World War I, the Act on Social Insurance of Workers was adopted in the Yugoslav Monarchy in 1922, regulating pension insurance of workers. However, this law was not applied until 1937. Pension insurance and other forms of social insurance have been systematically introduced after World War II. From the institutional and financial standpoint, pension insurance was gradually decentralised and transferred to the competence of Republics of that period. The crisis of the pension system, already present in the end of the socialist period, was further deepened during the Homeland War and post-socialist transition. It was primarily reflected in the problems related to financing pension systems and the drop of the pension levels. Towards the end of the 1990s, a so-called small, parametric reform was conducted, rationalising the existing pension system. In 2002, a partial capitalization of reforms was initiated, which meant the radical change of the pension system. Pension reform, connected with the changes in society, caused new problems in the first pillar of intergenerational solidarity. After the “debt to pensioners” that was made in the first half of the 1990s, and which is gradually being paid back, the current problem are so-called “new pensioners”, who have entered retirement after 1999, and whose pension income is increasingly lagging behind income of those who have entered retirement beforehand. The author points out that the future development of the pension system will be largely determined by the economic development, particularly by growth of employment. He also predicts that Croatia will correct the existing pension system through the change of some of its parameters, (such as the retirement age), while also reconstructing its institutional structure, primarily through the introduction of basic pensions

Pension Systems in European Countries and Croatia: Crisis, Reforms and Perspectives

U ovom se radu raspravlja o mirovinskim sustavima europskih zemalja i Hrvatske. Prvo se podsjeća na početke mirovinskih sustava, ekspanziju nakon Drugog svjetskog rata te krizu koja ih je zahvatila od sredine sedamdesetih godina. Danas se mirovinski sustavi nalaze pred krupnim izazovima, kao što su demografska regresija, financijski pritisak radi postizanja konkurentnosti na globaliziranom tržištu, transformacija gospodarstva, osobito tržišta rada, te snažni otpor građana mirovinskim reformama. U radu se raspravlja o mjerama koje su europske zemlje poduzimale kako bi novom socijalnom i gospodarskom kontekstu prilagodile mirovinske sustave. Govori se i o hrvatskom mirovinskom sustavu i njegovim mijenama tijekom posljednjih desetljeća. Upozorava se na aktualne probleme hrvatskog mirovinskog sustava te naznačuju pravci mogućih promjena. Zaključuje se da dugoročna održivost mirovinskog sustava, prije svega, ovisi o gospodarskom rastu, kao i o diversificiranoj strukturi financiranja mirovina.This paper deals with pension systems in Europe and in Croatia. First it provides an overview of the beginnings of pension systems, their expansion after World War II and their crisis that started in the mid 1970s. Today pension systems are facing enormous challenges, such as demographic regression, financial pressures to enable competitiveness on the globalized market, transformation of economy, particularly of the labor market, and strong resistance of citizens to pension reforms. The paper discusses the various measures undertaken by European countries to adjust pension systems to the new social and economic environment. The paper also describes the Croatian pension system and its transformations in the past decades, pointing out the current issues facing the Croatian pension system and its probable directions of change. It is concluded that long-term sustainability of the pension system depends primarily on economic growth and a diversified financing structure