The Politics of Welfare – From Rights to Obligations: The Case of Slovenia

The main focus of this chapter is on the structural environment and the changes in the welfare state that frame social policy and the functioning of social services, in particular on changes in policies to manage poverty and social inequalities, which also have implications for social work. This is an area where policies are increasingly restrictive, access to social benefits and entitlements is becoming conditional, with consequences for the work of social services. The public discourse is dismissive of cash benefits recipients, encouraging moral judgement and a division between deserving and undeserving cash benefits recipients. The period of the analysis in this chapter is from the early 1990s, when Slovenia departed from Yugoslavia and the political system was changed from socialism to capitalism. The chapter will outline the evolution of social policy on poverty, the main changes in the policies and legislation, and reflect on the impact of all these changes. The process of subordination of social policy to economic policy will be shown, as well as the changes in the work of social work centres. The chapter will be concluded will some ideas and thoughts about the possible future developments in social policy and social work.