Education And A Welfare State In An International Perspective

Dr. Sonja Kump

Summary:  Although education is not included into the most asserted typologies of a welfare state, it is put forward in modern welfare discussions. The changes of the basic paradigm of social policy, which means the transfer from the safety insurance to the assurance of participation, are caused also by the transfer from »passive« to »active« social policy, in which education and qualification are the most important. The article derives from the thesis that according to the selected indicators, the member states of the European Union are classified into four predominating regimes of the welfare state, and that every type of the welfare regime, i.e. liberal, conservative-corporate, social democratic and Mediterranean can be connected to the particular profile of educational policy. The analysis of the selected internationally comparable indicators shows that in particular groups of a state welfare, there is a similarity of educational policies. However, the analysis of individual indicators shows also considerable differences and classification into sub-groups. The basic finding of the article refers to the phenomenon of the new fifth type of the welfare state regime, i.e. neoliberal type, which is typical of the Baltic group of countries. The hybrid type of welfare state is typical of the Central European group of countries, in which Slovenia is included.