The Criticism of Romanian Social Security System’s Reform: “Emperor’s New Clothes” or Practical Measures?

This article explores recent debates about citizenship, social security rights and social provisions in Romania. It also discusses the concept of social exclusion which is used to determine the condition of those who have fallen outside the social insurance system. Romanian social security system is founded on the principle of solidarity which holds that all citizens face a series of social risks (unemployment, illness, ageing, death), that make them dependent on one another. The emergence of these social ills and the socio-economic conditions led to a major crisis of social security and citizenship in Romania: a crisis of coverage, of legitimacy and of participation. Recent policy debates suggest that the difficulties faced by the Romanian welfare state are encouraging moves towards the British model of tax-based (rather than insurance-based) financing of social provisions. Discussing this issue with economists and politicians, new reform measures had in view by the legislator are evidently regarded as equivalent to Hans Christian Andersen’s “Emperor’s new clothes”.