Sustainability of the welfare state and socio-economic model in the case of European Union 15 member countries in the period from years 2004 until 2010

As a result of aging of the population, economic stagnation and financial crisis the question of European welfare society and its sustainability has become a matter again. On this topic there has been many discussions and debates in recent years. The last financial and economic crisis showed that the welfare society may not be so stable as it seems and it's sustainability needs to be questioned. This thesis approaches the problem by defining the welfare state, also by explaining different classification of states or models and different views to the question in the theoretical part of this paper. In the empirical part 15 European Union members are being analyzed according to different socio-economic indicators and the conclusion to the questions raised are made. The main purposes of this thesis is to describe and explain different approaches to welfare state; give an overview of historical development of welfare state; explain the emerged social changes and problems in society; analyze the sustainability of the welfare state in the light of last economic crisis and to make conclusions for development. There has been many approaches and different classification of the welfare states and to the question of country's responsibilities towards its citizens. In this particular thesis the question of classification was solved by defining different states according to the functions of the state and the scale of responsibilities and functions it offers. According to the comparison of the groups and the correlation analysis there is hard to say whether and for how long the welfare society is able to function present way, because the differences in the socio-economic indicators were not so obvious and clear. Despite this, there are clear trends, that can be seen in the indicators, which European countries need to solve by reforming the welfare state model.http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b2626345~S1*es