Social Policies and Social Services in North Macedonia: Between Ideology and Reality

This chapter provides a contextual background for social protection development in North Macedonia since its independence in 1991, so as to depict the character of the politics of the welfare state, as well as to outline the main challenges in social policy and social work that hinder a more comprehensive coverage and protection of social rights. Chronological analysis of main developments in social policy and social protection shows a significant divergence from the previous Yugoslav heritage in social protection. The introduction of principles of pluralisation, deinstitutionalisation, privatisation as well as conditionality in social protection provision significantly modified the scope and coverage of social protection. The internal influences on the politics of the welfare state were mainly determined by conservative/populist ideology on the one hand and ambitious social democratic agenda on the other. Regardless of the political ideologies, and despite some recent improvements, some of the pertinent challenges in social policy and social service provision include: limited coverage and low adequacy of the social assistance scheme, arbitrary setting of social assistance cash benefits, limited access to unemployment insurance, ineffective active labour market policy as well as overburdened social work workforce, with a heavy workload and insufficient coverage of the socially vulnerable population with the required services.