This book will try to find answers to two fundamental questions relating to developments Central and Eastern Europe at the conclusion of the last two decades and the answers are obviously crucial for understanding future evolution in the area of ideas on the social state as such. These questions are: Is it possible, with the experience of the past twenty years of social reforms in Central and Eastern Europe, to contemplate a new model of the social state? Can we perceive the influence of post communist countries on the direction of the European social model, assuming there is a consensus that one actually exists?