Croatia: Social Rights in a Welfare State—Wandering Between Symbolism, Irrationality and Economic Sustainability

Vinković, Mario (2023) Croatia: Social Rights in a Welfare State—Wandering Between Symbolism, Irrationality and Economic Sustainability. In: Sustainability of the Social Security System : Demographic Challenges and Answers in Central Europe. Legal Studies on Central Europe . Central European Academic Publishing, Miskolc; Budapest, pp. 71-91. ISBN 978-615-6474-36-0; 978-615-6474-37-7; 978-615-6474-38-4

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Abstract

This chapter focuses on the analysis of social rights and social security in the Republic of Croatia, primarily through the lens of Articles 11-17 of the European Social Charter of the Council of Europe, which Croatia ratified on 26 February 2003, along with the Additional Protocol to the European Social Charter Providing for a System of Collective Complaints. The vulnerability of social rights is undisputed in the conditions of their permanent stratification as a con- sequence of social and political transitions in recent decades and demographic challenges and migrations that Europe predominantly faces. Thus, the provision and realisation of rights in the areas of social welfare, healthcare, and assistance to vulnerable groups, such as persons with disabilities, children, youth, and the elderly, pose a particular risk. Croatia is already determined as an indivisible, democratic, and social state by Article 1 of the Constitution, with social justice, inter alia, elevated to the level of the highest value of the constitutional order and the foundation for interpreting the Constitution itself, as stated in Article 3. In such conditions, political elites have an undeniable responsibility to ensure and implement the rights proclaimed by constitutional provi- sions, which are perpetually threatened by national, regional, and global challenges, including material deficiencies that inevitably accompany planned measures of relevant social policies. Therefore, this chapter furnishes insight into the reality of implementing constitutional provisions, the application of relevant leg- islative solutions, and compliance with the aforementioned provisions of the European Social Charter of the Council of Europe. The substantive structure of the chapter should serve as a scientific foundation for further research efforts of interested PhD students in the Central-European environment.

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