Abstract

This article will analyse the most important conclusions of recent historiography of fascist social policies. The focus of historians on the fascist social policy that was deve352 loped in the course of the 1920s and, above all, the 1930s, has grown since the turn of the century thanks to contributions that have enabled us to consider more profoundly the effects of the regime on national social policy in the long term. In the Italian context, political objectives have been recognised as the dominant ones in the management of health and social security, for the principal purpose of social control, since the start of fascism. In particular, the debate on «consent», the great theme of public services and the effects of the role of the PNF, have driven the most important studies on this subject. Through these contributions we have thus managed to contextualise and understand the Italian Social State setting out from the fascist experience.