34. International Public Finance Conference
An Evaluation on Social State Understanding and Turkey
Yeşim Çam, Coşkun KaracaIn the past, the most significant aim of the countries has been developing policies that will ensure economic growth. Today, however, this approach has been replaced by the policies increasing the welfare of society. Social state concept emerged within this process and as a result of the paternalist state perspective that increases the welfare of the society. Within the scope of this perspective, governments have to provide a high standard of living for their citizens, to take measures in advance for future problems and to distribute national income fairly between citizens. The main motivation behind the study is the necessity of the social state. The study discusses the tasks that any state should undertake in order to maximize the welfare of society and the targets to be achieved in this way. The aim is not developing a new method but analyzing the social state practices of Turkey in comparison with the ones applied in the OECD countries. In this context, the development of the social state and the services that should be presented within the framework under this perspective is discussed in the first section. Next section shows deficiencies in social welfare services in Turkey. The last section describes things to do to overcome the respective deficiencies.