At the start of his second four-year term in office (1928-32), Eleftherios Venizelos conceived the new, more interventionist role of the state in the society of the time. With the establishment of IKA (in 1934, after a long gestation period), the crystallization of a number of crucial measures in the field of employment (pensions, allowances etc.) was attempted. The extended violation of labour laws made the need for state welfare particularly pressing. Despite the various difficulties he encountered (the establishment of labour policy, compulsory social security, and the consolidation of the arbitration of labour disputes), Venizelos was reflecting the desires of a large part of society. However, these changes did not result from shifts caused mainly by economic mechanisms, but from conditions outside the economy, such as the doubling in size of the country and the absorption of refugees.
Undoubtedly, one of the most important aspects of Venizelos' modernizing policy is the reorganization of public hygiene. Basically the process involved the reconstruction of medical care, the dissemination of rules of personal hygiene, the creation of hospitals and surgeries and also the sanitation of cities through networks of water supply and sewage.