The paper examines recent social interventions in Serbia and Montenegro, a Montenegrin tax reform aiming to increase salaries and Serbian wide scheme of cash transfers. These cases are examined through the prism of populism and political pragmatism trying to show how social policies and social interventions are prone to be used as part of the efforts the generate wide electoral support. Paper discusses social policies in the post-communist environment arguing that the communism generated a set of norms and expectations that make social policies in the Central and Eastern Europe more vulnerable to being manipulated for acquiring political gain than in some other countries. Aim of this paper is to draw the attention to the need of more serious and more long-term social planning which will not be subordinated to the short-term political goals. Only with that being achieved, countries in the Western Balkan will be able to see higher socio-economic progress.