The Influence of Socio-Economic Transformations on the Family Life

Abstract

The family life – like the whole of man’s existence – is affected by socio-economic conditions. There is an interdependence between the family and socio-economic life. Today attention in modern societies is first and foremost directed at the individual. Therefore the family is no longer supposed to play such an important role of a social institution. Consequently the family is forgotten by economists who are more willing to use the concept of the “resident individual” than the specific concept of the family. Meanwhile it is in the family that one should seek the first strategic source of resources for society, mainly by the reconstruction of society, balancing redistribution, creating human capital, and protection of weak individuals. The family as the basic community needs an appropriate organization of socio-economic life. We mean here especially such an organization of labor that would take into account the needs and the rhythm of family life. In order to properly function and fulfill its mission, the family should be provided with just wages for its labor. In the context of the family life just wages is thought to be such that suffices to establish and maintain one's family and safeguard its future. The family for its development does not need to be cared for from time to time, but its needs permanent solutions in the form of the state's active pro-family policy based on the principle of subsidiarity. The pro-family policy must transcend the concern about the family’s material situation, and tend to protect its subjectivity and identity. It is necessary to make families themselves better aware of their own role of coauthors of the pro-family socio-economic policy.