Social Policy and the Life Course: Application of the Life Course Policy Analysis Scheme to Lithuania

Abstract

Social policy plays a non-negligible role in shaping people’s lives. We aim to identify how the post-Soviet transformation in the field of social policy shapes the life courses of people in contemporary Lithuania. To achieve this, we use the ‘life course policy’ analysis scheme proposed by Leisering and Walker (1998). The scheme distinguishes between three main spheres of social policy that are important in shaping life courses: education, risk management systems and old-age pensions. Moreover, three traits of the life course policy are identified: structuration, integration and normative modelling. This theoretical scheme is applied to the Lithuanian case based on the review of the previous literature and research. The analysis shows that Lithuania has inherited strong mechanisms of structuration, integration and normative modelling from its authoritarian past. These mechanisms are becoming weaker and adapted to the current social, economic and political context. The structuration of the life course through social policies has become weaker and is especially evident in the sphere of education, which facilitates increasing de-standardisation of educational pathways. The integration of the life course has also weakened, especially with regard to risk management systems. The institutional dichotomy of social protection is especially apparent when comparing the social guarantees of the participants of the social insurance system and the groups outside it, as well as stigma attached to the receipt of social assistance. It can be argued that the current life course policy regime in Lithuania can be characterised as a weakly integrated model of ‘segmented security’ with a strong insider/outsider dualism. The inherited tradition of strong norm formation persists in the Lithuanian education system, but has been adapted to new realities. Strong normative modelling is also particularly important in risk management systems, especially with regard to the threat of status loss. Contemporary Lithuania can be attributed to a post-Fordist life course regime, which is characterised by de-standardisation and de-politicisation of the life course, and transformation of social policy institutions towards more flexibility to accommodate and facilitate this change.