Transformation of the Welfare State in the Service Oriented Economy

In this paper, theoretical and applied aspects of the welfare state concept are reviewed, as well as how the welfare state influences postindustrial society from a theoretical and practical point of view. We tried to prove that, in the conditions of the postindustrial economy, a variety of factors such as the level of social payments per capita, the level of innovation activity, the social structure of society, etc., influence the direction of development of the welfare state. In the course of theoretical research, the works of T. Marshall, A. Müller-Armak, as well as works of famous thinkers, including Plato, Socrates, and theologians, for example, I. Zlatoust, F. Aquinas and others were used to prove the hypothesis. In the course of the analysis of transformation of the welfare state, we conclude that the formation of a qualitatively new principle of the organization of economic and social life can be considered a new trend nowadays, and that the principle of the isolation of economic agents of productions is the principle of the new economic model. An empirical study, with the use of the regression analysis, had confirmed the hypothesis put in the work, showing that the share of services, health care costs and the level of green energy are factors that can positively influence the human development index. The empirical study had also let the author find out that nowadays there is no clearly distinguished correlation between the human development index and the level of consumption, and the lack of this connection was associated with the fact that in the consumption society people tend to waste their income, while in the state welfare they tend to accumulate it. The interrelations revealed in the work allow us to draw conclusions about the directions to an effective transition to the welfare state.