Social systems in the Baltic States and the European social model
LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Baltijos valstybės; Baltijos šalys (Baltic states); Europinis socialinis modelis; Europos socialinis modelis; Gerovės valstybės; Klasterių analizė; Socialinė politika; Socialinės sistemos; Baltic states; Cluster analysis; European social model; Social policy; Social systems; Typology of welfare states.
ENThe paper discusses ways in which the social systems in the European Union Member States, especially in the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), fit in the European social model typology. The theoretical part of this paper analyses the European social model and its typology based on research findings by various authors. We compare the social outputs of countries grouped into different model types on the basis of different socio-economic indicators. In the empirical part, we carry out a cluster analysis for positioning the Baltic States into a mix of European social models. We concentrate on the most important aspects of social systems, and try to classify European Union countries according to their social policies. We use different clustering methods such as hierarchical and k-means clustering. The analysis is based on Eurostat data; clusters are formed on the basis of socio-economic indicators for EU-27 countries. Our results suggest that the Baltic countries’ public policies are relatively similar, while the social situation in Estonia is somewhat better than in Latvia and Lithuania. [From the publication]
