REFRAMING SOCIAL POLICY: TRADE UNION AS POLITICAL ACTOR - FACTORS LIMITING ITS ROLE IN THE POLICY CREATION PROCESS­Lidija Hristova, PhD Institute for Sociological, Political and Juridical Research at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje The Trade Union is one of the actors that play an important role in the crea­tion of social policies. By treating Trade Union as part of the civil society, the aim of this analysis is to identify factors that determine its role in the policies creation process, and also indicate the direction of their action. A special subject of interest is the trade union organization in the Republic of Macedonia during the past fif­teen years. TRADE UNION AND CIVIL SOCIETY In the analysis of development of the political community, one of the typical tendencies is that the political life is much wider dimensioned than the state. Poli­cies are gradually including the autonomous civil society which, through numerous, more or less, organized and institutionalized forms, assumes some of the classic state functions: protective, controlling, regulatory. The interests in the society are not protected only through parties, but also through other, autonomous organiza­tions, thus leading to new forms of political organization and to higher level of citi­zens’ participation in the decision-making in policies(professional, employers’, women’s, consumers’, trade unions’, environmental and other associations). Although they are part of the society at large, they enter into policies depend­ing on the circumstances and, appearing as political actors, they generate power in this process for the purpose of arranging social relationships pursuant to their goals and values. In general, this tendency contributes to strengthen citizens’ confidence in policies, to balance different types of power in the society(check and balances), to grater accountability and responsibility of the political elite. Any historical retrospective on the development of the political society will show that the importance of individual actors has been significantly changed, from one to the subsequent development stage. Their ability to mobilize, the nature of their requirements, the manner in which they acted and were organized, changed 220