Занятость в Беларуси: политика и повседневность

Abstract

The author scru tinizes a great amou nt of statistical and sociological data, publications in mass media, participant observations and other sour ces on the cou ntry government policy in the sphere of employment, labor market (including public wor k), on the ro le and situation of trade unions, the dynamics of unemployment and migration, population dispositions in connection with prices increase, fears of loo sing a job place, families' impoverishment (unemployment in the cou ntry being registered not by the findings of regular hou seholds sur veys but by the num ber of citizens officially registered in Centers of Employment). A.Mor gunova describes the established system of employment or ganization and contro l in Belaru s as a «corru ptive deal» (a term intro duced by Yu.Levada) and views it as an attempt to preserve by paternalistic methods the administrative comm omm anding system of planning and redistribution left over from rom the Soviet times. The present system allows in a shor t time perspective to smoo th over negative social phenom om ena, keep up the established form s of the state and society interaction. At the same time, in public rhetor ic it imitates the dialogue of responsible figur es, the suppor t of «initiatives from rom below» while actually increasingly taking these initiatives (shaping social networ ks, etc.) under bur eaucratic contro l. Under such conditions enterprises and employees are for ced to adapt themselves to the suggested patterns of behavior actually being devoid of possibility to influence the officials' decisions. The system of governmental bodies on labor and employment, especially Centers of Employment, appear to be the hostages of the existing situation, that is, over-centralization of contro l and regulation «from rom above». Two mor e articles of the issue deal with social pro blems engendered by world economic crisis.