W kwestii „nadopiekuńczości" państwa

Abstract

The crisis, persisting already for quite a long time, besides evoking a heightened interest in the structural problems, stimulated also the increase in studies of the problems of distribution. Among the latter issues belongs, inter alia, the question concerning the scope of protective functions of a socialist state. It even grew into the problem of alleged „over-protectiveness" of our state towards the citizens, manifested supposedly through an increase in the participation of social benefits in the national income in years 1981 -1983. The said increase was considered symptomatic first of all because it occured during an acute crisis, while in most other countries „normal" reaction to economic recession is the cut in social benefits. In connection with the above, an alternative was even suggested: a "state of work" or a „protective state". The problem appears to be very complex and multidimensional, yet solving it — as it seems — does not consist in choosing one of the two possibilities, but in adequate and competent combining one with the other. In the case of a socialist state both are of complementary character.