Abstract

The article studies the reception of the Beveridge Report in Italy between 1943 and 1946. It dwells on the Allied transnational debate on social security and on the ideas outlined in the 1942 Beveridge Report. It then analyses the scope and limits of this influence over the reform proj­ects drafted by the 1944-45 post-fascist governments and over the technical-political debate prior to the 1947 Commissione per la riforma della Previdenza sociale, charged with formulating proposals for social insurance reform. The article argues that occupational-corporatist policy legacies, limited financial capacities and resistance of politics and of social insurance technocracies hampered the shift towards social security along Beveridge’s lines.