Social Policies in the Thirties in Europe: Crisis and solution. The Italian Case

Drawing from historiography and literature on the subject and considering the consequences produced on the European society by World War I and the 1929 Wall Street Crisis, this article aims at analysing some aspects of the fascist construction of welfare state. The model suggested by the fascist regime in the thirties was a typical totalitarian welfare state, which used social policies to strengthen the home front and to build consensus for the regime. Despite the fascist regime had the war as its goal, it did not mobilize the country on the eve of World War II, but preferred to invest in social assistance and welfare, for reasons of political convenience. Moreover, the analysis of fascist social policy measures, such as social security, points out that some flaws in the social security system, such as excessive spending, or the categorical approach to assistance and social security typical of fascism, were borrowed from republican Italy.