Welfare and Social Security

Abstract

In the USSR, as in other industrial economies, families derive benefits from the state’s social security system; the state also provides a range of goods and services either free of charge or at subsidised prices. Soviet economists and statisticians refer to expenditures for these purposes as social consumption; one might also refer to them as the Soviet welfare state or, from a different point of view, as the social wage. It is the purpose of this chapter to describe the main features of the Soviet welfare state, to outline its major programmes, identify their beneficiaries and assess the contribution that they make to the wider goals of Soviet policy. Section 1, therefore, deals with Soviet attitudes towards welfare and inequality, Section 2 describes the composition of Soviet social consumption and its sources of finance. Sections 3 and 4 examine individual programmes in an attempt to assess their impact. The chapter ends with a brief assessment of the achievements and shortcomings of the Soviet system.