BOLLETTINO DELL'ARCHIVIO PER LA STORIA DEL MOVIMENTO SOCIALE CATTOLICO IN ITALIA - 2013 - 1-2

As mentioned by the author, the history of twentieth-century social welfare in Italy cannot be discussed without referring to such a leader in our country’s social policies as Lodovico Montini. Brother of Pope Paul VI, he was member of Parliament for more than 30 years. This Catholic politician headed the Italian Administration of International Aid (AAI) from 1944 to 1977: an institution which had great importance in the fight against poverty in Italy, especially in the years immediately after WWII. Among his contributions to the debate on social assistance issues, his participation to the San Pellegrino Conference in September 1961 is taken into account by the author.

The essay retraces women’s work in the Italian Parliament on social assistance from the Constituent Assembly through the end of the Sixties. Between 1945 and 1968, those women, who came from different political experiences and cultures, examined the issues of protection and assistance for women as mothers and workers, and for their sons and daughters, and the role of the family in Italian society; in this area, they developed several bills, but most of them did not pass. The passionate and lively debate that ensued, and which is retraced by the author, was made up of conflicts and agreements. In general, the hypothesis was proved according to which all political parties, including the main parties, delegated to the parliamentary women’s groups the study and analysis of gender issues, which were underestimated for a long time.

In this essay, the author analyzes the activities of the Socialist and Social Democratic parties in the Italian Parliament between 1948 and 1968 concerning social assistance. Among the main issues which were debated were the protection of motherhood and childhood, treatment of the victims of leprosy and tuberculosis, the reform of ECAs, winter assistance and many others. The author points out the elements of contact between the socialist forces, in particular the concern to strengthen the role of local institutions in the provision of social services. At the same time, he underlines the attempt to create a broad system of social security based on the central role of the public sector.

This contribution aims to improve the historical notions about company welfare carried out by Confindustria through several initiatives in this field. This essay focuses on the following: did the increase of labor productivity depend exclusively on wage increases or also on additional incentives, not only monetary incentives, which companies ensured to its employees? Whether the main cause of company welfare could be made up of something other than profit was also verified. In addition, lots of data and a consistent presentation of the different types of social welfare promoted by companies are included in this essay.

This article presents some suggestions about welfare in Italy and Germany in a comparative historical perspective. The social market economy succeeded in West Germany after WWII especially because the German trade union movement contributed to the institutionalization of companies’ social policies, within a framework regulated by the state. By contrast, in Italy, strong social conflict characterized the decades following the war years. The implementation of article 46 of the Italian Constitution, regarding worker participation in company management, was opposed by employers, while trade unions were not interested in it. Corporate welfare in Italy would be a unilateral and temporary grant made by some company managers.

Today welfare capitalism is still a subject of interest as demonstrated by recent national and international historiography. The aim of this paper is to analyze how it changed in the period between WWII and the Sixties. In particular, attention is focused on the relevance given by Human Relations and how it affected welfare capitalism. Debated at length at national conferences, HR was associated with the technological and organizational modernization of the biggest Italian industries. In addition to the debate, some HR applications are also illustrated in this paper: for example, at the companies OM, Pirelli, Falck and Uniliver. Finally, a specific in-depth analysis on the roles and functions attributed to the job training of “leaders” and “social workers of the factory” is provided.

In the Fifties, the relevance of the Pontificia opera di assistenza was due to the inadequacy of the Italian welfare state, which was not supported by sufficient financial resources because of the imbalances and heterogeneity of the national economy. The POA took advantage of American aid and international reconstruction programs, it opposed Communism and it played a role in Christianizing Italian society during the pontificate of Pius XII. It was a direct emanation of the papacy and interfered in the hierarchical relationship between bishops and the Pope, exactly when a national Episcopal collegiality was taking shape with difficulty. The POA was against the state monopoly on social assistance and mainly worked in the areas which were less supported by ordinary state intervention. In spite of its clerical perspective, it considered social service as a development feature, even though it was not always able to go beyond a mere donation of material aid.

This essay is dedicated to the work carried out by the Unione donne italiane (UDI) – Italian Women’s Union – in favor of children during the period between 1944 and the beginning of the Sixties. The author identifies three phases: the first was marked by war emergency, when medical aid even prevailed on theories about the education of children (1944-1948); the second was marked by the strong opposition to the Christian Democratic government, in which UDI tried to compete with the monopoly exercised by religious associations for children’s summer camps (1948- 1953); finally, in the third phase, UDI’s actions mostly focused on the figure of the “working mother”, sometimes in collaboration with other women’s associations or trade unions with different ideological orientations (1958-1965).

The “Opera nazionale assistenza religiosa e morale agli operai” (ONARMO) was founded in Rome in 1930, as the official agency of the Italian church for practicing the pastoral mission in the work place. In the following decades, Opera experienced a large expansion, by spreading throughout Italy with a variety of initiatives ranging from the typical corporate and social-welfare environment to the hospital, educational and cultural sector. The essay traces the milestones of the history of this institution and focuses particular attention on the training and pastoral actions carried out by its workplace chaplains, who were engaged in completing the service of the apostolate in plants; from some viewpoints, it was different from the ministry exercised in the parishes by ordinary clergy.

This contribution shows the peculiar example of the “civic welfare” which took place in the city of Milan in the Fifties and Sixties. As mentioned by the author, two different cultures acquired a particular significance in defining the social policies of Milan: reformist socialism and social Catholicism. The municipality’s financial commitment was particularly remarkable in giving educational and social services to citizens. In the political transition from centrism to center-left coalitions, the municipality’s commitment in social issues increased; the author also highlights that socialists and Catholics had different cultural positions about the role played by public and private institutions in social assistance.

The features of the Italian welfare state – expensive but unsuccessful, fragmented and labor-oriented, partial and family-oriented – have been roadly examined by historiography. In some regions, these features mostly pushed local political forces to realize tools of “supplementary welfare”. This article analyzes the social welfare of the Emilia-Romagna region after WWII, when policies supporting businesses and state policies for social wealth redistribution coexisted and intertwined their aims: it led to the realization of advanced social services and housing policies for the lower and middle classes.

This essay contributes to providing new elements of historical analysis on the social assistance policies carried out by the Province of Milan from 1947 to 1962. In a context of strong dynamism in the economy, the Province of Milan was initially affected by the Region’s outlook. With the delay in the foundation of the regions, the Province of Milan recovered some operating margins. The interpretative key of this essay concerns the relationship between the finances of the local institutions and their social programs; the Province of Milan is considered a case study. The analysis of spending commitments and financial resources shows how, in the Fifties, the Milanese Province was able to support a network of social services which represented significant intervention, even though it did not fully respond to social change.

In this essay, the author analyzes and compares the social policies for children which were provided by Venice and Padua municipalities after WWII. This subject is a novelty in this field of study. Firstly, the initial objective of interest of this research was the investigation of the broad range of social assistance tasks which at that time were attributed by law to the municipalities. Then, it was necessary to restrict the investigation to the assistance for children. The result, which has been achieved thanks to the analysis of archival resources, allows us to notice this tendency: the Venice municipality, whose managers were more laical than those from Padua, spent money for children’s assistance even when it was not required by law. Conversely, Padua was more inclined to support private initiatives, especially religious initiatives.