Trends In The Welfare State: Social Citizenship Between Regionalization And The European Community

This work aims to frame some hypothesis about the impact of two recent trends in the welfare state: the “regionalization” and the increasing role of the European Union. Both these trends seem to favour the “universalist welfare regime” grounded on social citizenship rights and, for this reason, they meet some resistance in the European welfare states which adopted a “corporatist welfare regime”. This is so particularly in France, where the corporatist regime rests upon a cohesive society and a central State enjoying a wide social legitimacy. The trends towards regionalization and the increasing role of European Union may have however a more significant impact in those European countries - like Italy - where the corporatist welfare regime combines with a fragmented society and a weak social legitimacy of the State.