Abstract

The study analyses the rights to social assistance and the characteristics of the administrative activity necessary to satisfy them, through the examination of the principal critical points of the legislative, jurisprudential and doctrinal evolution, and of the most important aspects of the current system. With regard to the latter question, the author concentrates on the principles that the constitutional and European system is able to marshal in opposition to the dangerous regressive trends brought about by the economic crisis. On the domestic plane, she recalls the doctrine of the 'essential core' of fundamental rights, also recently confirmed by the Constitutional Court, and points out the importance assumed by the personalization of the assistance provided and by the trend to involve the person in the definition in actual fact of the service demandable. From the same perspective, she points out how the increase in the selectivity of the social services brings about an increase in the responsibilities of the individual vis-à-vis the other associates, and sets out the reasons why that can be interpreted as a further advancement in the implementation of the constitutional principles of solidarity and substantial equality. With reference to the contribution coming from Europe, even though acknowledging the 'weakness' of the European social model, aggravated by the interventions in the matter of monetary stability, she focuses attention on certain orientations in jurisprudence that consolidate the rights to assistance as elements of an administrative citizenship that goes beyond the national dimension.