Abstract

This essays aims to analyze the Italian debate on French solidarism, the political doctrine elaborated by Léon Bourgeois at the end of the XIX century. The article focuses on the transnational circulation of political concepts like solidarity, social obligation and social rights, in an attempt to identify the main topics of the Italian cultural discussion around the way to solve the «social question». In this perspective, the text draws attention on the struggle for the social reforms, underlining in particular the relevance of the cultural aspects in order to comprehend and explain the complexity of the formation of the Welfare State.