INTRODUCTION ACTIVATION AND WELFARE-TO-WORK- PRO­GRAMMES AND STRATEGIES Suzana Bornarova Institute of Social Work and Social Policy Faculty of Philosophy, Skopje 1. THE CONCEPT OF WELFARE-TO-WORK VS. WORKFARE IN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT Whilst some writers distinguish between the different areas of change from passive to active welfare delivery, for example,"workfare" vs."active labour mar­ket policies" vs."activation", others do not. Workfare has always been a politically charged term and has fallen into political disrepute internationally and over the last decade it has most frequently been used as a term of abuse by those who oppose policies which they perceive to be eroding rights-based entitlement to assistance. In Europe the word"workfare" is often used by policymakers as a foil, to explain what the new policies are not. Only the political right in the USA still uses the term to describe policies which they advocate. Broadly speaking, social policies towards employment can be put into four categories: • Passive: the payment of benefits(both insurance and means tested) to un­employed people. The case for unemployment compensation is compelling. But, at the same time, there is evidence that the availability of unemploy­ment compensation carries some significant negative effects including: the prolongation of spells of unemployment, dependency, abuse of the system by people who misrepresent their circumstances and inactivity of recipients in seeking employment. How far unemployment compensation contributes to higher unemployment depends crucially on the effectiveness of the pub­lic employment services in combating the abuse of benefits and in ensuring unemployed people remain active in the labour market; • Active Labour Market Programmes: typically comprised of training courses, public works, etc. Unless they are well targeted their real effect is 147