Citizen well-being and social cohesion for the common good : from welfare state to welfare society

Abstract

The greatest challenge to European welfare systems during the XX century has been the globalization with the weakening of national institutions and local production systems and the new factors introduced by this competition. In the twenty. first century the challenge is represented by the possibility for European countries to integrate in a positive way in new forms of mesoregional cooperation generated by the awakening of the Asian (China, India, South East Asia, etc.) Latin America and Africa's communities. This new world raises the problem of the reorganization of European welfare systems with the transformation of the Welfare State in Welfare Society. Underlying this transformation is the need to develop a new plan for society that the author identifies the common good. A new project that requires the redefinition of the role of the state and communities to build stronger participatory processes, institutional decentralization, a greater mobilization of civil society at all levels, the redefinition of the common goods, according to new needs and strategies. The issue of the sustainability of the European socioeconomic systems is discussed by the author with focus on community life and to the role of social enterprises as the main cell of economic innovation.