Efektivnost české sociální politiky[Effectiveness of the czech social policy]

The Czech social policy in the 1990s has been oriented mainly by given economic possibilities and pragmatic political considerations. Thus there are permanently important but rather hidden objectives that can be traced in the social policy development so far: legitimacy ("social acceptability of the reform"), non-increasing, or restricted social expenditure and in consistency with both objectives the intention to eliminate the risk of potential poverty.In the following analysis we are concerned with the question of the social policy effectiveness in terms of poverty elimination. We use the hypothesis of targeting, selectiveness and progressively redistributive effects of social policy. We question the significance of the selected characteristics (as need, generosity, strictness, targeting) for the system's effectiveness.Our analysis suggested that the effectiveness of social transfers in terms of the potential poverty elimination was sufficient in transition. At the same time the analysis draws attention to some limits of the chosen strategy. The complex relationships between generosity - targeting - effectiveness of social policy seem topical with respect to this goal as well as in terms of maintaining the costs of social transfers at an acceptable level.