SOCIJALNA PRAVA S POSEBNIM OSVRTOM NA ZAKON O RODILJNIM I RODITELJSKIM POTPORAMA I MJERE POPULACIJSKE POLITIKE U REPUBLICI HRVATSKOJ
With the emergence of new social risks, modern countries are faced with the challenge of achieving an effective social insurance and social security system, which is the goal of every welfare state. In order to adapt to the social risks (e.g. changes in the structure of family, increasing divorce rates, increasing number of single-parent families and single-person households, low birth rate, ageing of the population, decrease in the number of the working-age population and young people in the job market), the concept of social investment emerges in modern countries. The main areas of social investment in EU countries are active employment policies, families and children and education. The Republic of Croatia lags behind the European average in all three areas. The aim of this paper is to present family policy measures, especially the parents' rights based on the Law on Maternity and Parental Benefits, in the Republic of Croatia. Furthermore the importance of policies for the reconciliation of professional and family life and of achieving the dual-breadwinner family model will be stressed. Lastly, the demographic changes and the population policy measures in the Republic of Croatia will be analysed. Many family policy measures in Croatia are simultaneously pro-natalist, and although the concepts of family and population policies are not synonymous, they exert influence on each other.