Socio-economic position of households in transitive societies

The paper deals with the situation of households in broader socio-economic relations. As households represent in theory, and in practice too, an assoc iation of producers and consumers, they create through their economic and c onsumer activities an intersection of economic and social development. They are thus not only a passive reflection of the economic reality, yet they a ctively play an important role of the socio-economic movement. Households t hrough their own private consumption constitute an incentive for economic d ynamics. One can therefore talk about a certain subsistence dependence of h ousehold consumption on production (economic growth) and at the same time a bout a certain functional dependence of economic growth on household consum ption. Similarly, in classic and neoclassic model considerations too, the s ame importance in national economy is ascribed to enterprises and household s, where both are performing economically equivalent activities. Classic an d neoclassic theoretical substantiation of the importance of private consum ption in the;whole aggregate demand reflects real causal link between house hold decisions on their private consumption and the real economic growth. H igh share of private consumption in the used GDP in developed countries con firms the influence of household demand on the course of an economic cycle. Provision of an economic development leading towards the economic growth is an actual spotlight in transition economies. Thus the exploitation of all accessible macroeconomic motivations aiming at the economic-growth is;inevi table,at the same time, however, they must be considered as a certain commu nication channel between citizens and the government. One should consider t his communication h the sense of positive or negative stimulation of their economic activities and merit assessments, and ask whether they motivate th e preservation of the fairness principle. This principle is meant in a sens e of whether each member of the society occupies social position achieved b y his own endeavour. As parameters of external and internal incentives that influence behaviour of economic subjects are fairly variable, wider space is opened for the und erstanding of economic growth not only as a result of purely economic and p ragmatic factors, but also of merit Systems and institutional frameworks in a society. As households represent a certain microeconomic parallel of macroeconomic c hanges, the pursuit of fast economic growth should, in the end, manifest it self also by corresponding positive changes of their living conditions, whi ch might motivate them to identify themselves fully with changes that occur red and conduced them to accept market merits. Transformation costs measured by the decrease of private consumption proved to be high in several countries. That, to a certain extent, weakened popul ation's support for reforms. There are problems of how households accept th e newly emerged society stratification linked with the income and consumpti on differentiation, unemployment and poverty phenomena. The question is, wh ether the approach towards these features reflects surviving elements of pa ternalistic desires or if these are accepted as an inevitable part of the a pproximation toward market economies, while expecting positive changes. The se problems remain unanswered yet. Next analytical part of the paper deals with transformation costs measured by the decrease of private consumption. This part is centred on CEFTA count ries in general and on the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic in partic ular. The author points out that the decrease of real income, increase of c onsumer goods expenses and correspondingly the decrease of relevant consump tion led towards creation of certain stabilising groups of households that oriented themselves at the structure of consumption accessible for them. Summarising, the author presents a following problem. In the pre-transforma tion period the prevalence of household demand in the unbalanced market of goods and services was favourable for the supply side and resulted in a cer tain loss of motivation for the rational economic activity. Nowadays, howev er, currently decreasing household demand might be just the element that co uld endanger the internal balance formation in the market of goods and serv ices.