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SOCIAL PROGRAMMING IN THE SYSTEM OF SOCIOLOGICAL CATEGORIES CONCERNING MARKET ECONOMY AND LABOR MARKET DEVELOPMENT IN TRANSITION ECONOMY
© Terziev V.*
Vasil Levski National Military University, Bulgaria, Veliko Tarnovo
The transition to a market economy is linked to a number of priorities in national social policies and labor market development. The paper discusses theoretical and practical basis of social programming considering unemployment issues and active policies on labor market through the example of the Republic of Bulgaria and its experience from transition period and afterward. Importance and functions of social programming are presented and conclusions and recommendations are made about progressive social technologies' elaboration and development of national legislation. Keywords: labor market, social policy, unemployment.
Introduction
In the information era, the labor is represented by the people who can think, communicate and use information. Although the natural resources may remain the key factors, influencing on the type of industries that will appear in a given region, nowadays the employees are those who determine the competitiveness of
* Professor, D.Sc, Ph.D, Dipl.Eng. Department of Business Administration and logistics.
these industries. The fundamental change in the role of labor from passive to active gives the economies and cultures a new space, in which the leadership style encourages the employed to behave as «stakeholders», to be well-trained in modern basic skills, to take responsibility for themselves and to be able to make adequate decisions.
The countries, owing high-quality training systems and effective government style that requires continuous improvement, will succeed much more in raising the labor productivity. Increased productivity, in turn, will allow raising both the actual income of the employees and the overall standard of living. The countries and regions that fail in increasing the productivity of their labor force through continuous improvement, will face declining competitiveness and lower overall standard of living.
The main challenge today is to create conditions for increasing the employment, reducing the poverty and successful overcoming of social exclusion in conditions of a still unfavorable economic environment. The challenge in Bulgaria is to cope with the negative trends in the labor market, where:
- the labor supply exceeds significantly the demand;
- the nonconformity between the qualification of the employees and the needs of the ongoing restructuring of the economy of qualified specialists is essential.
The scope of the existing policies is aimed at securing minimum salaries, guaranteed minimum income, minimum pension, securing compensations and social benefits in unemployment. Actually, compensatory mechanisms of the existing incomes are sought. The new accents arise from a combination of different policies and instruments based on targeted studies. For example, after a thorough analysis of the structure of unemployment, the approach to programs and active measures in this area, as well as their orientation have been changed. Efforts are redirected from the receipt of compensations and benefits to employment. Now the emphasis is on the preventive intervention, so that the people who gave lost their jobs not to fall into a state of long-term unemployment and hence the need for social assistance.
In the conditions of insufficient labor demand, the dominating actions are to promote and keep employment by subsidizing the employers and stimulate the entrepreneurship.
The emphasis in this social policy is on implementing a more active approach to rather affect the causes, than the consequences. This means that the preliminary assessment of the social impacts in significant changes in the legislation has to become an integral part of the social policy.
New focus in the strategy of social policy is the implementation of effective mechanisms to support specific target groups that are not attractive enough, the provision of subsidized employment for such groups of unemployed persons, to whom this measure is effective. People of working age and in good health shall
be given the chance to earn their income, to retain their working habits and not to be isolated from society, as well as to increase their suitability for employment through involvement in literacy courses and professional qualification training.
Market economy and labor market development
The transition to a market economy determines its priorities in the national social policy, including also in the policy on the labor market. The role of the state in terms of ownership and regulation of social-labor relations has been changed. Currently, the state guarantees the material security of the population only within the minimum social standards and state authorities determine only the minimum labor rights of the employees, which may be increased in the employment contracts.
The search for ways and methods for forming a market model of employment with a social focus is located in the very beginning. This is evidenced by the processes, carried out in each of the structure blocks of the socio-labor relations, which determine to a large extent the nature of the labor market and the field of employment. Namely: on the labor market, in the field of manufacturing employment, in the block of relations covering remuneration and acquiring the results of labor, and in the relations, mediating consumption as the conditions for forming the standard of living and at the same time the conditions for the reproduction of labor. The resultant effect of all these factors is expressed in the standard of living of the population.
At the same time, the labor market creates a space for manifestation of the objective economic law of interaction between demand and supply of labor, performing primarily the function to balance them. Thus, the mechanism of the labor market also appears to be a mechanism for distribution of individual labor in sectors and areas of socially useful services, a mechanism for converting the potential of labor resources in social work, realizing the human capacities and generating income. Therefore, the productive employment of the person can be considered as the ultimate objective in the regulation of the labor market and its socially acceptable performance.
The second and very decisive function and factor of action of the economic law on the interaction between demand and supply of labor, is determining the initial cost of labor force as a major stimulus to employment and a source of guaranteed subsistence of the employee and their family.
At the dawn of the labor market development, as part of the stock market, its single regulator is the mechanism of free competition, based on the law of supply and demand. Under its pressure, the transfer of labor force to more advantageous industries is carried out. However, the processes of specialization and distribution of labor that are carried out under the influence of the scientific and technological revolution, make the labor force even more professionally oriented, which impedes its «transfer» from sector to sector.
Objective grounds for the existence of unemployment arise. In addition, the capital begins to unite and focus, aiming at monopolization and change in their spheres of influence. All these are socio-economic preconditions for the emergence of state regulation of the labor market as a sphere for guidance of labor force.
Besides, the labor force, as a main subject of regulation, is considered by us as operating labor resources. The labor force, as an ability of the individual to work (otherwise the labor is potential), and the labor as an appropriate human activity (functioning labor force) aimed at securing subsistence resources, are presented as different functional forms of labor resources. In this context, the ratio between these categories is uncontroversial and subject to a certain logic of development.
The labor resources include: labor reserves of permanent residents in a municipality (potential labor force), and acting labor force - the employed workers and unemployed persons. According to the contingent, this is the part of the working age population (employed and unemployed), which the working young people, working pensioners, excluding first and second group disabled persons, are added to.
The labor force in a stage of directing (on the labor market), when falls within the sphere of production, starts to be used by it. Moreover, the manufacturing process also involves the means of production, objects and tools, i.e. material factors of production. Here the labor force abandons its commodity form and becomes a productive force (part of the productive forces of society).
In addition, the role of the level of payment, as a main condition for the recruitment of labor force, is ambiguous: on the one hand, the higher salary increases the demand for jobs by the economically active population, but on the other hand, leads to its reduction, as the salary costs go up for the employer which leads to an increase in the production costs. Trying to restrain this process, the employer increases the organic structure of the capital, lays of labor force, thus helping the increase of the class of persons flowing into unemployed. The approbation of these processes in the interests of compliance with the constitutional rights of all members of society is an important task of the social policy on the labor market and the field of employment.
The employment field and the labor market interact under the law of the «communicating vessels» - the greater the tension on the labor market (when the labor supply exceeds the labor demand), the lower tension in the field of employment and vice versa. Therefore, its condition is one of the key indicators for all government decisions in the socio-labor field and joint (tripartite) agreements in the field of social partnership[1-3].
The question «Why does the problem of regulation of the labor market become so topical in Bulgaria?» arises. The problem is that the market transformations cover very unevenly all branches of the economy, penetrate into its internal mechanisms and relationships. Their management, in order to form a unified national labor market, requires coordinated actions.
The need to strengthen the state principle in the regulation of the market model of employment is also dictated by the fact that an apparent part of the public sector is retained in the structure of production. Therefore, the role of the state in its regulation should not be reduced, especially during the transitional period for the development of the economy. The modern in terms of social significance measures for regulation of the employment of the economically active population, as forms for inclusion of individual work in the public one, in order to generate income and realize creative talents of the individual, are required to carry the main load in the system of measures on the regulation of the standard of living.
In the process of regulation of the economy, the non-conformity between the importance and dimensions of the transformations in the economy and their social cost, becomes even more apparent. This affects the underestimation in reformist social employment policy, in terms of their place in the structure of the factors for standard of living of the population, as well as their impact on the work motivation and demand for subsistence resources, i.e. on the transformation of social and labor relations as a whole.
The emergence in the transition time of hired labor, property inequality, social division by income level, makes the task of coordination of the interests of all segments of the population in the socio-labor field - the task of reaching a consensus between the interests of the employers and those of the employees, quite topical. It also becomes the most topical objective of the management system on the labor market, with all its tasks.
The discussion for the purpose of regulating the social and labor sphere, where the labor market is also included, has started even before the reforms. Then the interpretation of the purpose and its regulation as reaching full and total employment, is dominating. In the economic literature, published since 1992, attempts to redefine the content of full employment, typical for the period of full employment and compulsory labor, are seen. At that time, many authors associate the concept of «full employment» with the employment in socially useful field of the entire labor force.
Such ideas make the statements of some economists about the possibility of the interpretation of inefficient employment, as a form of hidden unemployment accompanying «full employment» in the administrative-command system, formally unfounded.
Apart from various non-essential modifications, the positions of researchers on this problem are mainly represented by two sufficiently well formed viewpoints. The first of them, as a fundamental sign of full employment, considers the complete satisfaction of the needs of labor of the population. The second, based on the full employment, puts the sign of conformity between the needs of labor of the population (labor supply) and solvent demand of labor (the number of job positions).
We believe that, from the two considered perspectives, the first meets better the socio-economic objective for labor regulation, as it features the full employment by the needs of the person and puts them in the first place.
In our opinion, the second designated position is suffering from replacement of the concept of «full employment» with another definition, rather characteristic for the balancing between the material and personal factors of production. As important as it is, «the balance» characterizes employment by meeting the needs of the production of efficient use of labor force and production capacity. This level of relationships is very important, constituting the interest of the employer, but it does not reveal the full extent of the interest of society in full employment of the population, in conditions of market economy, but represents one of its quantitative indicators. Here the interpretation of «full employment» as a combination of primary and secondary employment also finds place, i.e. when the employee does not earn enough money from their first employment, as a source of material supply. This makes the secondary employment for the employee a source of additional payment and financial security for themselves and their family. This is a rather quantitative approach. The person has the right to determine on their own which of the areas of employment is primary for them and which is additional, as well as what the dimensions of each of them could be.
In practice, the function of balance between the material and the personal factors of production appears as a rational employment, as a quite mobile and optimal for any given period combination between the labor force and the means of production - a purpose of the local employment policy.
The public balance of powers, which would stimulate the economic growth not by suppressing one's interests, but by reaching their consensus and social peace, is also important as a whole for society. This is also part of the task of state regulation of the labor market. Moreover, the state is represented as:
- a guarantor of the constitutional rights of the citizens;
- an employer, organizing and responsible for the labor market within the state and municipal property;
- a party to the tripartite agreements in the field of social partnership.
The measures for state influence on the labor market are aimed at optimizing its main elements - the labor supply, which refers to the structuring in accordance with the demand for a particular structure and quality of employment in accordance with sex and age, qualification characteristics, terms of payment, etc.
These are complex and multilateral economic processes that correlate with the macroeconomic components of the market economy as: the ratio between the level of employment and the labor cost, the dynamics of the forms of property (in the terms of structural change), the investment and tax climate, the social tension in society, etc.
Such global issues are mainly solved by the government of the country, in its capacity as a main carrier of state interests, on the basis of the national concept of socio-economic development. Nevertheless, the opportunities for active influence of the other entities for the development of the labor market should not be denied.
Unemployment considerations
The crisis in the economy, the processes related to changing the forms of ownership and the structural transformations have created the phenomenon of underemployment. It manifests as hidden unemployment, administrative leave and similar phenomena. This, as a rule, does not depend on the wishes of the persons themselves, but is conditioned by the lack of work in the region, the financial difficulties of the production or other reasons, when there are no conditions for workload, sufficient for receiving payments that are sufficient for subsistence.
For the measures of social support for this contingent of employees, we will talk further. Here we just want to emphasize that the concept of incomplete or partial employment should be distinguished from the already implemented by us terms of primary and secondary employment. We can discuss them when there is no other option (jobs or suitable work) for development of additional (to the main) employment.
According to the criterion of labor productivity, we can separate the relatively excessive employment, where employment is less effective as a result, in other words, the same result could be obtained with significantly less cost and number of employees. In this respect (in terms of obtained results), the costs for living labor and mechanized labor can be redundant. If the activity is characterized by excessive employment, this phenomenon already reveals the scale of the hidden unemployment. This is a consequence of the policy of detention of mass dismissals of employees and threats for sharp increase of the unemployment rate in the region. In any case, the inefficient employment signals the presence of hidden unemployment. Its transition into an open form of unemployment is no longer a purely economic issue for increasing the efficiency of employment, but a socioeconomic one.
Nevertheless, in the beginning we can say a few words about unemployment. It is worth mentioning that the global economic idea, represented by the views of the classical school of the economic idea, has not reached immediately to the conclusion of the inevitability of the unemployment as a mandatory attribute of the market economy model.
Under the influence of the views of Jean Baptiste Say, David Ricardo, Alfred Marshall, Arthur Pigou and others, the so-called Classical school of employment has been established, which says that full employment is the norm of the market economy, and the best economic policy is non-interference of the state. Classics thought that the market system is capable of self-regulation and can provide the full use of available resources in the country, including the existing workforce6.
Currently, in the West the most common and practical use is the theory of employment by George Maynard Keynes. He and his followers claim that in capitalism there is simply no mechanism to ensure full employment, that the economy can be balanced and can operate under a significant level of unemployment,
but a state intervention, its regulation, its stimulating, financial and legal impact at all stages of reproduction of the labor force is necessary [6].
They claim that, in order to eliminate unemployment, the government spending must be increased, as well as to bring the total volume of effectively solvent demand to the level providing full employment. The state budget and the tax fiscal policy play an important role for this. Keynes's ideas have received development in the representatives of the left Keynesianism and Neokeynesianism.
The Classical school also has many followers. Currently, more of the economists and government leaders of foreign countries in one degree or another support the theories of Keynes on the need for state regulation of the social and labor sphere, in order to minimize unemployment. Supporters of the Classical school of full employment stand on the monetarist positions. They pay special attention to the credit - monetary policy for regulation and offer their own rule. It consists in that the solvent demand of the population increases with the long-term growth of the gross national product. Its source is the real sector of the economy.
We share the opinion of the American economists K.R. Macconnell and S. Brue, authors of the famous textbook «Economics» - that both the Keynesian and the monetarist approach are useful in a specific economic situation. They help to understand the different aspects of the macroeconomic theory for regulation of the market economy.
Depending on the causes for its origin, the Bulgarian and foreign economists define frictional, structural and cyclical type of unemployment.
Frictional unemployment is related to the dissatisfaction with the old job and the search for a new job or the change of the existing job in the near future. This is a situation where people voluntarily change their jobs.
Structural unemployment is associated with changes in the structure of the consumer demand or in the production structure. Overcoming the structural unemployment often requires retraining and adaptation of the employees to another type of work and it takes a longer period. As a rule, the structure of the labor force in significant scale does not match the structure of the jobs. In this and other types of unemployment, the total number of jobs is approximately equal to the number of the economically active labor force.
Cyclical unemployment is associated with a uniform repetitive cycle, or with a seasonal decline in production in one or another industry with decrease of the demand for labor force and reduction of the number of jobs.
Some economists consider the frictional and structural unemployment to be absolutely inevitable and somewhat useful in the sense of a stimulus of the subjects of labor for the adoption of preventive measures to regulate employment. To the preventive measures for regulation of the employment structure, we shall refer the whole system of professional guidance of young people, starting from an early age in order to reduce losses from frequent job change and to create prerequisites for a successful career.
Supporters of the active policy on the labor market consider that equivalent funds spent for payment of unemployment benefits should be targeted for preventive measures for the prevention of «peaks» and economic downturns, in other words for smoothing cyclic recurrence of the production as such that instigates unemployment.
The unemployment rate at full employment is equal for example to the amount of the frictional and structural unemployment in the complete absence (prevention) of such cyclic recurrence. This level is called a natural rate of unemployment. For economically developed countries it is different and amounts to 2,5 % - 3,0 % under the standards of the ILO.
According to the economic theory, the relationship between unemployment and lagging (loss) from the volume of the gross domestic product (GDP) therefore is known as the law of Okun. According to him, the excess of the actual level of unemployment over the «natural» 1 % is equivalent to a loss of the GDP by about 2,5 %.
The task of increasing the efficiency of the policy of the labor market is actual not only for the present unemployed (overt and hidden) or the underemployed, but for the employees (underemployed or ineffective) as well. After all, namely they «raise» constantly the number of the «discharged» persons from the labor market. If the measures of an active policy on the labor market manage to achieve if not cutting, at least limiting this practice, even if they do not cut, but narrow it down - this will increase the balance of flows on the labor market.
The relationships between employers and employees should not be simply placed on a legal basis, which is the very important function of state regulation of social and labor relations in general and unemployment in particular, but they must be attributed to the effort of the state impulse for a dynamic, continuous development and improvement. The state is called upon to organize a civilized dialogue on this subject between all entities in the labor market.
Labor market and social policy
In our opinion, the aims and tasks of the social policy in regulating the labor market and the labor productivity consist of the following:
- creating all necessary conditions for economic growth, structural change of production, in order to create new and retain streamlined job positions for employment of the economically active population;
- providing the labor force with flexibility, mobility in order to transfer freely between the sectors, areas of employment and occupation, as well as between the regions in a move to raise the labor productivity and standard of living;
- combining of all parameters of demand and supply of labor, securing a natural level of unemployment;
- assistance for employment and social protection of the unemployed persons and socially vulnerable groups of the economically active population on the labor market;
- formation of a new motivation for highly productive labor of the individual;
- a decent level of salary and income, adequate to the qualifications, experience and the level of entrepreneurship;
- material incentives and civil responsibility of the individual to maintain the standard of living of their family;
- elimination of the causes and factors of both external and internal character, determining the maintenance of underemployment and hidden unemployment.
Moreover, in order to regulate the labor market, they change depending on:
The level of the subject of government:
- nationwide (macro level);
- regional (level of administrative area);
- local (micro, reflecting individual or group interests).
Time for their implementation:
- short-term (current, operational);
- medium-term (tactical);
- long-term (in perspective).
According to sources of funding:
- fund from the state budget, extra-budgetary funds, funds from public organizations or commercial structures, resources from funds of operational programs financed by the European Union.
According to the nature and forms of their impact:
- direct (laws, regulations, decrees, orders of the administration, etc.);
- indirect (taxes, rates, foreign exchange rates, interest rates on loans, etc.);
- mixed (national programs for socio-economic development, targeted address national programs, targeted address regional programs, programs for insurance of risks in the labor market: unemployment, delayed payment of unemployment benefits).
According to content and expected consequences:
- incentive;
- prohibitive;
- restrictive;
- protective.
Choosing one regulatory measure or another, the governing entity always has to take into consideration the specific situation on the labor market, the trends revealed in the analysis, their assessment and determining the preference for this or that measure on the labor market, their consistency or inconsistency in respect of existing legislation, the possible socio-economic consequences, etc.
The particular use of one measure or another to regulate the labor market is in itself a combination of the above directions and forms of implementation of social policy. It always refers, however, to the type of passive or active policy on the labor market. The proposed typology of social policy is approved by the ILO and is used in its documents.
A base of the passive policy on the labor market is the responsibility of the state for the situation of the employee and the employer on the labor market. Such policy is typical of transitional economy and implies certain guarantees for the employees by the state for the period of stabilization of the country. In its essence, it is a continuation of the state paternalism in the conditions of building a market economy and is aimed at coping with social conflicts.
The measures for passive policy on the labor market include: registration of citizens, who contacted the employment service, determining the unemployment benefits, organization for timely receipt of the benefits, early retirement.
Being an integral part of the social policy of the state in the period of building a market economy, the passive policy on the labor market pursues its main purpose - to stabilize the level of consumption by the able-bodied persons, who are unemployed, thus avoiding the conflict between labor and capital.
Critics of such a direction consider the passive labor market policy as socially dangerous and threatening with laziness, as well as parasitic moods and motivations by the unemployed that suppress the rights of working members of society. Opponents of the prevalence of passive programs for regulating the labor market, including also programs of unemployment insurance, claim that the main task for the state budget, as well as the budgets at other levels should become the support of the productive employment, not the «conservation» of the unemployment. This is already a measure of active policy on the labor market.
A base of the active policy on the labor market should become the support of the unemployed in their active search of methods for inclusion in employment, which would allow them to secure themselves and their families with income and other means of subsistence. In other words, the active policy on the labor market transfers the responsibility for the situation of the person and their family to themselves. They will live in accordance with their income from their own employment and then the situation of the people who they secure depends only on them.
Active policies on labor market
The active policy on the labor market is aimed at preventing mass unemployment. Therefore, it provides:
- preventive measures of the employment services, jointly with the employers for reorientation and retraining of the staff of the enterprises and organizations, engaged in structural reconstruction of the production;
- active job seeking and employment in accordance with profession, personal experience and aptitude of the employee;
- measures on support of self-employment;
- professional consultation of those who want to set up their own company;
- subsidies amounting to one-year unemployment benefit;
- non-monetary forms of support of small and family business.
Thus, the active policy aimed at improving the competitiveness of the labor force, supporting all forms of individual employment, including family businesses and farming.
The difficulties of the transitional period dictate not too high level for implementation of this responsibility in the field of standard of living: the level of minimum social standards. Nevertheless, the other trends in the state support of employment: social protection of employed and unemployed, social assistance and support in employment - currently require the respective instruments to assess their own capacity.
Giving up its past paternalist positions in the organization of labor and employment, the state should not remain an indifferent observer of the difficulties, which the population faces in relation to the change in the economic model. It should act as an active subject for prediction and regulation of employment and its typical specific functions in the field of employment - remuneration and its social support, social protection and social partnership.
In the world of modern labor legislation, for each individual person, as well as for society as a whole, employment cannot be excessive, of course in the broad social (rather than psychological) interpretation of this concept. The upper, acceptable in itself, limit of the volume and content of employment is individually determined by the person. Hence the non-occupation - which is not unemployment yet. The unemployed person is considered an unoccupied person, willing to work, capable of productive work and actively seeking job.
The principle of equal opportunities in realization of the constitutional right to work is not excluded, but assumes a differentiated approach to the choice of forms of assistance and support of the various groups of the economically active population on the labor market. All kinds of assistance should be equally accessible to those who are in need. This requires a thorough job of the structures and employment services in the creation, classification of data for each contingent and specifics of assistance.
Moreover, an arrangement of the objectives and specification of the tasks on regulating the relations on the labor market between all levels of government, as well as its active entities, are necessary.
The competences of the central bodies of authority also include determining and control of implementation of social guarantees in the field of employment, securing the volume of centralized investments to implement nation-wide social programs, including programs for full employment, creating and preservation of jobs, vocational guidance and other cooperation with corporate capital at its involvement in the process of investing in employment. The regional structures, responsible for the state of employment, should also take their place in the active policy on the labor market.
Local authorities determine the status of the unemployed and the level of low security of the population of the region, find such citizens and provide them with specific assistance in terms of job placement with cash or benefits in kind.
In this connection, the group of measures of active policy on the labor market aiming at support the employment, also include the so-called «transitional forms» from unemployment to productive employment and therefore - the tactical aims for regulation of the labor market. Moreover, it becomes necessary, as we believe, to clarify the terms «temporary employment», «basic» (primary) employment, «additional» (secondary) employment, etc.
Recently, our and foreign researchers have started to pay great attention to temporary employment as a limited in time demand for labor force. Sometimes the temporary employment is determined by the content of labor, limited by a temporary (seasonal) period.
Temporary employment, as a measure of the active policy on the labor market, is very ambiguous in its consequences. On the one hand, it allows:
- the employee - not to be temporarily unemployed and the associated with this lack of means for existence, but does not cardinally solve their problem;
- the employer - to more effectively select their staff and to manage it in terms of quantity and quality. This type of work helps to significantly reduce the costs of the employer for support of the workforce by minimizing the costs for social guarantees and thus weakens the social protection of the employees at the social environment;
- the labor agencies - to lower the overall level of unemployment, making it possible to avoid chronic unemployment. Currently, temporary employment is widespread in the informal sector of the economy.
Along with that, temporary employment often impedes the professional development of the person's career and reduces their potential chances for a better labor readjustment. Therefore, a necessary prerequisite for its use as a tactical objective for regulating unemployment is to recognize the voluntary choice of the people for such a form of employment.
Social technologies are necessary for the transition of the society from one reform stage to another, from individual solutions to a system of measures for the regulation of the cycle of transition of the labor force from one type to another type and rehabilitation of the employment model. There is a need for demand both for individual decisions on urgent problems of hidden unemployment or inefficient employment and the creation of special complex target programs and efficient social mechanisms bound by time, place and provided with resources.
Basics of social programming
The study of social programming as a social phenomenon and its essence shall logically start with the definition of basic concepts and development of apparatus for further examination of this phenomenon. The conceptual-categorical
apparatus is required to help answer the questions about the content and the forms of programming, its place and role in the theory and practice of public management. The word «programming» has Greek origin («pro» - previously and «Gramma» - write, mark). It has been linked to the designated in writing of a certain range of actions, understood with the meaning predict, prognosticate, warn, declare, proclaim, prescribe, command.
All these meanings have something in common, namely that they indicate a certain feature of the human activity related to preliminary planning of future actions and activities, including their limitations. This feature has a public character, a decisive (related to the decision) but also deonic (prescriptive) direction, suggesting expression of such activity in the product - a program (in ancient Greek -a prescription, public notice).
In the modern interpretation of the term «program», several meanings are generally included:
- action plan at work;
- statement of basic principles and objectives of the activity of political parties, organizations or individuals;
- a summary of the content of a school subject;
- an ordered sequence for action embodying an algorithm for solving certain tasks.
The term is used with the meaning of a list (directory) of theater, concert performances, performed roles and their performers, radio and television broadcasts, from the authors of reports and scientific conferences, etc. The further development in the field of using this concept should be noted.
Within the provided and other known definitions, the manifestations of the program without indications of the nature of this phenomenon are usually avoided. There are special papers on the terminology analysis of the term.
In a sense, this circumstance can be explained by the fact that the potential range of use of this term allows carrying its general meaning on one or another field of use and in its aspects of significance should be specified within its framework. Its further increase in the areas of use makes the current need for special analysis and generalization of practice for use of the term, the detection of its nature and a more precise definition of its content.
The use of the term «social program» does not simplify the task, since the very interpretation could potentially be extremely wide, identical to the public or closely correlated only with special social activity. Moreover, the given area in the various definitions has different boundaries and components.
In the first place, the social program is a promising concept for welfare growth and development of social relations. It gives a general description of the strategy for social development in a particular historical period, the main areas of well-being growth and global qualitative and quantitative indicators to be reached during this period. Such concepts are contained in the programming documents of
the ruling parties and serve as a basis for development of relevant sections of the plans for economic and social development.
In the second place, the social programs appear as special sections of the plans for economic and social development (annual or in the long run) of the relevant regions, districts and municipalities for planning. Reflecting the perspective social directions more thoroughly, they form tasks for a certain stage and ways for their achievement, reflect a deeper deployment of social criteria in planning, economic development as a whole and its individual sections and are most often not only the final result from planning the development of the economy, but also as a complex of knowledge for it.
In the third place, the special social programs stand out, involving the solving of certain crucial social tasks and the corresponding concentration of resources. In this sense, the term «social program» is mostly used, although it refers to a narrower concept. Such programs often affect different sections of the socioeconomic plans and require special coordination in the development of various sectors of the national economy.
They contain specification of goals and objectives, that reflect their hierarchy, serve for the formation of new forms to meet the social needs of the population and the formation of corresponding new organizational relations.
As a social program, the combination of identified and feasible measures in a certain social field can reasonably be considered in case that no unified program document, plan, etc. is received, but are based on a common concept interlinked and aimed at reaching a comprehensive goal.
Although considering the time, within our society in the late 70-s the social programs are considered within the directive planning of the existing system of party guidance and total government. The indicated qualities of the social programs such as conceptualization, targeted direction to meet the social needs (including new forms), defining the social landmarks in social development, the social criteria in the development of the economy, expressing them in qualitative and quantitative indicators, the various species and social flexibility allow seeing in them a universal method of political and management activity, the use of which may vary depending on the general and specific socio-economic, political and other conditions.
From the 70s of the last century, in the political and managerial vocabulary the term «target complex program» has been established, usually with the meaning of «directive and address document representing a combination of resources, contractors and deadlines for the implementation of a complex of interrelated tasks and activities, united by a common goal».
Admitting the importance of such programs within the management practice, we have to note that their common name is not quite appropriate. The adjectives «target» and «complex» characterize the attributive, immanent properties of each program and not only from the specific class. Non-target and non-complex pro-
grams simply do not exist. Each program, in an explicit or implicit form, contains a target and a certain set or a complex of tools for implementation. This case once again confirms the importance of a terminology analysis and finding an adequate definition.
The American politicians and scientific communities started using the term program to refer to a part of the budget process as a guideline for financial funds for the settlement of certain social and economic problems.
It should be noted that most of the aspect definitions become identical with the concept of the program plan, as there is exchange of content between the two concepts. A range of definitions emerges of the type «program - this is a special kind of program», etc. Within this circle, the concepts of model, project, etc. are included, as their interpretation is also not constant.
The terminological ambiguity leads to difficulties in the political and managerial activity. There are attempts to get out of this situation at a legislative level and to give a legal order and accurate determination of the meaning of the term «program». In one of the first such attempts undertaken by the US Congress in 1975, the State Economy and Expenditure Reform Act for 1976 defines the program as «a basis for the budget direction of the bodies of state power», as it legally formed the established by the practice.
While scientists argue, legislators using their developments interpret the concepts in specific conditions. However, the question of the term «program» requires further consideration and principled solution. The answer should be sought not in the sequence of terms arranged in a row, but in the summary of aspect interpretations and the logic of common essential qualities.
Without being the final version, the program can be defined as a dynamic, structured image and method of operation (fixed in certain essential systems), created for the coordinated interaction of the subjects of an activity with targeted impact on an object (subject) of this activity using tied with the performers resources and deadlines for implementation of complex tasks and events.
With regard to the social programs, the definition can be as follows: The social program, as a structured dynamic image and a way of action (fixed within the program) for coordinated interaction between the bodies of power, allows the solution of important social problems through the implemented resources, contractors and deadlines for the implementation of a set of tasks and events.
Key element in the given description is the way of action and the associated with it certain method. Before performing any practical actions, the subject mentally builds their image «modus vivendi». This complex thought process is based on the need and ability to meet a certain need that has an important role for the subject, in order to solve problems emerging as the ideal presumable result of the actions taken.
Within the current actions, the program answers the question «What should we do?», but the answer to this question is inevitably linked with «How to do
it?». By determining the way for the upcoming activity «modus operandi», the selection and order for use by a combination of means for obtaining the desired result.
These means may actually already exist or are to be created. In any case, they are pre-selected and arranged in a specific sequence and structure (logical and temporal). At this point the structure and sequence of operations in the use of these means should be determined, respectively the efforts of the authors and executors of the program.
The multi-element and complex structure of the program, its temporality and the participation in it of a number of executors, determine the need for a documentary (significant) fixation and a tracking system of its implementation. In the process of implementation of the individual components and the entire structure of the program, an activity may be reviewed, corrected, modified or terminated under the specified quality. Moreover, from this program for behavior and interaction between separate subjects, integrated programs could be drawn, implementing purposes, which have not been included in the intentions of the primary participants.
The term «program» is one of the most important characteristics of the human activity - outpacing of any actions by their mental image. The program is a special product of the individual and / or collective mental activity with practical and logical focus and it appears as a generic category of very special or private structures in which, as it will hereafter be demonstrated, to establish a specific model of a purposeful activity or concept of social development of the region, district or municipality, targeted programs for social protection of the population, a comprehensive employment program etc.
If the term «program» is used broadly, the term «programming» has received today the narrow meaning of strictly mathematical operations or preparation of information for processing through electronic computing machines.
Going beyond these meanings also defines programming too narrowly. For example, in the famous system «planning - programming - budgeting», it is defined as a detailing of the plan. Understanding the product is more extensive than the process of its creation. If a development of a program is carried out, it is obvious that this is also programming. In this way, we will understand programming as a process for developing a program.
Certain principles, methods, forms, etc. are inherent to the process and the work on its implementation. After the general definition of the term «program», it is important to determine the importance of programming and the functions that it performs in the public practice.
Functions of social programming
Programming appears to be a general principle of management and when taken in consideration by the subject, it builds its actions with the help of certain means for achieving the goal. The following affect the specific content, structure
and dynamics of the aim within the image of the action: the conditions in which the system is located; the extent of their knowledge and dependence on the subject; its value orientations and priorities; the available opportunities and selected forms and methods for achieving the desired result.
For its entire history, humankind has developed only three fundamentally different instruments for governing, i.e. for exerting influence on people.
The first - this is the hierarchy, an organization in which the primary means of action (respect to power) is obedience, pressure on the person using coercion, control over the distribution of material resources, etc.
The second - this is the culture, which is the produced and recognized by society and organizations set of values, social norms, prescriptions and stereotypes of behavior, rituals, forcing a person to behave in a strictly defined manner, and not otherwise.
The third - this is the market, which is a network of equal in rights horizontal relations based on buying and selling of goods and services, property, balance in the interests of the seller and buyer. In the living, real economic and social systems, they usually exist. It is about what is given priority to and which is relied mostly on.
Programming is one way or another, accompanied by the use of all these «tools». Above all, it provides an organization, which we find not only to be hierarchical in respect of authority and obedience, etc., but also to be a «systematic, conscious union of the actions of people pursuing the achievement of certain goals».
This compensation can be presented by a set of the following basics:
- creation, fixation and explication of a sufficiently accurate image of the desired result or aim;
- linking the aim with the possible means for reaching, choosing a variant and its recognizing as necessary;
- development, reproduction and correction of a faster algorithm or prototype for actions leading to the achievement of the goal;
- structuring of these actions in a certain way, giving them relevance and consistency, without which the actions themselves would be separate, fragmented acts unrelated in a single process;
- communication on the program with agents and monitoring on their actions.
Programming is an important element in the systems with clear aims, as organizational systems are a specific variety of them.
An organizational system can be characterized as a system, the appointment of which is the coordination of the actions of purposeful parts (social groups and individuals) and direction (tools and means of action) with the overall aim to obtain a significant end product.
Programming in a certain way connects the purposeful part of the organizational system with the means and subjects of the activity. Within the organiza-
tional system, there is a hierarchy, distribution of power and order and executive functions between agents (subjects) of the program.
The strong correlation between forms of organizational and system programming should be noted. The «Hard» organizational system (conditionally called «administrative-command» system), as a rule determines the corresponding forms of programming and the types of programs from the type of the directive plan. The «Soft» system (liberal-democratic system) only specifies the general reference points and recommendations for their achievement. In practice, however, we can meet different symbiosis between «hard» and «soft» systems in diverse combinations of programming.
On the other hand, the form of programming and its products has an adverse impact on the organizational system. The program that is created and fixed in a certain type can determine the particular form of the system. Program changes (corrections) as a rule lead to corresponding changes in the system.
Programming is directly related to another historical way for governmental impact - culture. Here we can also find a deep relation. Culture is seen as «a specific way of human activity», as a «collection of sustainable forms of activity». A way for the life activity of the individual (personal culture), of the social group (class culture) or the society as a whole, may be fixed within the culture. This approach is complemented by axiological or value nature, the essence of which lies in the fact that culture is seen as «a set of human values» - all that exalts, ennobles and humanizes life and human relations.
There is an increasing development of the sociological approach to culture, when it is understood as «specific, genetically not inheritable set of tools, techniques, forms, models and benchmarks for human interaction with the environment for habitation, which is established in their lives together to maintain certain structures of activity and communication».
Within the sociological approach, culture is seen as a «system of collective adopted values, beliefs, norms and patterns of behavior inherent in a particular group of people... Culture - this is the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the members of one group from another».
The overall level and characteristics of culture in a society have a significant impact on the forms and content of social programming.
Social programming in its cultural expression (aspect), is based on the fact that only social relations that contribute to the development of the human personality can create all the necessary «conditions so that the algorithmic culture «as a way of activity to become a consistently rational, overcoming the stochastic subjectivity, the violent lack of control and the prerequisites for this free human activity to constantly provide the way out of these «algorithms», the rise to the ways of activity, renewed by their own human acts of creativity».
This is where the full manifestation of the essence of social planning stands in its creative impact on the social reality, the provision of its practical transformation according to adequate recognizable values of the human world.
The approach to culture as a codified system (and generally reflected through various means), models and norms of behavior, activities, communication and interaction between people bearing the regulatory and control function in society, deepens the understanding of its relationship with social programming.
The development of an image and a way of action - programs in all elements, starting from the detection of the aim and ending with verification of the achieved result, is executed based on the value orientation of the subjects, awareness and choice of the most important needs and different ways of fulfillment. This in turn, is related to the legal side of culture, which through programming receives regulatory-management solution.
The connection between programming and marketing is seen unanimously. At first glance, they contradict one another: programming with its immanent ability to introduce systematic, structured processes, formalization of the impact on them - and the market with its classical ability of spontaneous interplay and conflict between different social forces.
There are a number of things linking these phenomena. Above all, we must distinguish social programming through the market as a social institution and state programming of the market economy, and through it the social sphere.
The first of these appears as social programming by the «invisible hand of the market» - discovered by Adam Smith. «The invisible hand of the market», by programming selfish interests of producers and consumers, directs them to an end that is not in their intentions. Pursuing their own interests, they take actions that serve the interests of society.
According to this condition, the effective social programs are required to provide the benefits from the investments in the different components. Fully funded by the state budget government programs are not effective - both economically and socially, as the economy as a whole determines the welfare of society.
Adam Smith has expressed this in the «Laisser faire» principle according to which individuals and companies are obliged to act within the economy without state intervention. In the practice of the socio-historical development of that time, this has not been implemented in any country in its full form. However, the state intervention in the economy until the 20th century has been «passive», accidental and in most cases, it bore the nature of emergency measures during wars or has been an indirect regulation through legislation and the monetary system.
In the 20th century, the systemic interference of the state in economic and other spheres of public life has increased. In this overall trend, a central place is held by the question of the relationship between state regulation and market self-regulation. Experience has identified three directions (models) to resolve this issue. In the USSR and the group of countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Southeast Asia, known as socialist countries, according to the generally accepted terminology «the communist block» up to the beginning of 90-s under the influence of the Marxist doctrine and its modifications there is a model of
centralized directive planning of economic and social development, which is denying the market. In this process of nationalization of the economy, there is more and more growth in the areas of public life, directly or strongly regulated by the specific system.
This model has not passed the test of practice and was rejected by most countries trying to implement it. Within this model, there are a number of methods, in particular the balance and regulation method, applicable in virtually any form of programming. This model also gives impetus to the development of methodology and experience for social planning, social engineering and other forms of social programming.
In a principally different direction until the 30s, there is the practice of «passive» participation in the economy of other countries where the term «planning» is a curse, according to the remark of F. Polak.
The deep economic crisis in the 30s that comes after countless other disasters and shakes the very foundations of the Western production system, also produces a revolution in the economic thinking.
This revolution associates with the use of the J.M. Canes doctrine implying «active» state intervention, including by means of programming in the economic sphere. In the early 30s, in different countries emerge projects for government programs designed to reduce unemployment and alleviate other symptoms of the crisis - in particular the «Papin» plan in Germany, the «Marke» plan for mobilization of the economy for the establishment of a new social order in France, the Development Program of the valley of the Tennessee River in the United States, etc. [6].
Programming starts being actively applied in the activities of individual companies, the «Ford» factories, the «Lockheed» company and others. Its specific impetus comes after World War II in West Germany (in conjunction with the «Marshall Plan»), France (the State plan for the development of the national economy 1947-1952), in Japan and other countries 130.
In the further development of state programming in the countries with market economies contradictory phenomena are observed, connected on one hand with an increase, and on the other hand with a reduction of state intervention in certain socio-economic and political situations, and as a whole «the unification» of market factors with programming has become one of the leading trends in social development.
Nevertheless, the thesis «Laisser faire» has not been forgotten and thrown away from the political vocabulary. It acts as a principle of these social forces that restrain the immanent forces of any state, subjecting everyone and everything. Virtually, every company is developing promising and current business plans, marketing plans, programs to work with staff, etc.
Within the programming, technologies have been developed as indicative planning, «planning - programming - budgeting» etc. Under the auspices of international organizations (the UN, UNESCO, EU, International Labor Organiza-
tion, etc.). international social programs have been developed, taking into account the market conditions in their realization. In this complex structure, the Planned and Proportionate Development Act, for which the system of total government directive planning has been constructed, has not been implemented even at a national level - the system gives opportunities for a specific organization of interaction between the actors in important public activities.
Programming is a mechanism, but a mechanism related to the class of very complex systems, in which the constituent elements have greater freedom of behavior. The connection between the elements and the system with the environment is characterized by flexibility and instability. The order alternates with the element. The composition and structure of the system is not exactly defined, as its borders are not exactly set. Many things in the system are implicit, indirect, «distorted». Programming is an ordered and spontaneous process.
However, the concept has left the political and ideological reflections of «To be or not to be» and has entered into the use of public management with deep theoretical and methodological processing and methodical and technological enrichment.
Conclusion and recommendations [4-12]
The analysis of the theoretical and methodological issues of social planning allows the provision of a comprehensive concept of the institutional and managerial foundations of social programming. He institutional management approach implies a revelation of the role of social programming as a function of public institutions, government and management. However, if within the institutional approach, social programming takes the form of norm formation, within the management one it takes the form of a solution. The interaction of social institutions and management systems very much depends on the mechanism of this transformation.
As a main node for the transformation of norm programs in management solution comes the strategic programming, in which perspective conceptual solutions are developed based on a program-target principle (approach). Depending on the situation and the apparatus used by the person accepting the decision, the strategic programs may obtain the form of forecasts, projects, plans in various combinations. The different types have specific sets of properties. The stable use only of one of them leads to a loss of controllability, spontaneous «self-program-ming» of the processes in some cases and in other cases makes the management system rigid, depleting it of the necessary flexibility and opportunities for rapid reconstruction of the impact methods. This is clearly manifested in the two crises of the twentieth century - the spontaneous development of the market relations in the late 20s - early 30s in the West (especially in the USA), where there was a virtual absence of a system for state programming, and the stagnation in the socioeconomic development of the USSR, which led to the crisis in the late 80s -
early 90s, wherein the control system was «tied» to the directive total state government.
The analysis of the interaction of institutional programming, resulting in adequate norm formation (expressed primarily through legislation) and management, through a program mechanism (through strategic, organizational and executive programming) shows that these essential parts can create a sufficiently coherent system of social programming, combining the mechanisms of the market economy with state regulation in the social sphere.
We consider it necessary to clarify the different positions in the legislation. In particular, it is necessary to define the concept of social programming (social programs) as a perspective structural image and method of action, created for coordinated interaction of the subjects of power and aimed at solving socially important problems using contractors bound by resources executors and deadlines for the implementation of complex events. The project approach to solving social problems set in the definition allows us to judge the efficiency of social programs on the use of effective methods of management, concentrated with an optimal use of program resources. The concept of social efficiency should be considered not as a separate type (class) but as an organic constituent component (main part) of every social program.
It is also necessary to adopt national legislation on regional social programming to ensure the unity of the legal, theoretical and methodological foundations for the development and support of strategic state programs at national and local level.
In this system the subsystem of targeted national social programs funded from the State budget is particularly important, in their respective coordination at all levels of the public management. What is particularly important is its role in managing the interaction of the different levels (national, regional and local) and the coordination of the activities of the various social services with businesses and public organizations (associations) within a single methodology, forming a unified field of social protection and ensuring effective employment of the population. A general weak point of the programs for subsidized employment is the limited opportunity they provide for the people involved to move from temporary to permanent employment. In other words, in terms of the so-called «sustainable employment» these programs are not effective; their effectiveness is mainly social and short-term (for the period of their implementation, mainly for a certain number of months).
A further study of these problems and development of progressive social technologies will enable a more efficient use of social programming in solving the current problems and providing actions in crisis.
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