Shaping public policy in the context of welfare state transformation

In recent years, the issue of welfare has been the subject of much discussion and debate, and the welfare state is again in the spotlight. Nowadays, two kind of challenges (1) economic and financial crisis which started to unfold in 2008, and (2) the structural changes in labour markets in the context of Europe 2020 strategy and trends of demography create new pressures on welfare states. Thus, in the context of transformation of welfare states under the economic and political international movements, the national states have responded very differently to the new challenges, and the governments had to rethink the policy-making process in order to get the ultimately purpose of a public policy, means ensuring the citizens' wellbeing. This paper analyses the Romanian government reforms, carried out under the Europeanization process and after the financial crisis, in various policy areas. The attention goes up on this case and aims: (a) to identify the challenges and perspectives of welfare state; (b) to study the policy-making process and the reform of contemporary employment policy made by Romania in the context of reconsidering public budget. From a methodological standpoint, the research relies on comprehensive and systematic search of the vast literature on welfare state, and document analysis (among other Annual Reports, authorities' data, resume, obtained by using free accession to information) and strategic documents.