ASPECTS REGARDING THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DETERMINISM – ANALYSIS AT THE EUROPEAN UNION LEVEL

Theoretically, the determinism represents a concept according to which the phenomena are generated by chains of causes and effects by conditionings and laws, by the necessary and repetitive interactions. As regards socio-economic determinism, it can be said that it shows the importance of the social factor in determining the economic development. Usually, paradoxically, although it is the key element in deciphering economic behaviour, the social factor, by its main representative - the man, is almost always excluded from analyses which regard the elements that contribute to the determination of economic development at national, regional or global level. For this reason, we consider necessary a shift in current paradigms towards the social factor, at the same time, positioning social policy the centre of public policies. Today, in a highly globalized world, when the powerful turbulences are observed on the international markets, social policies development is conducted under the pressure of new constraints, with obvious implications on all aspects of economic, political and social life. Although European Union is the promoter of the welfare state values, it does not focus enough the attention to the theoretical and practical aspects related to the reform of social policies, to the development of human capital and to the improvement of social cohesion in order to meet the current challenges of the globalized world. Thus, this article brings as novelty a series of arguments on the role and the place that the social factor should occupy in the economic sphere, it not being at this time an economic determinant.