Abstract

The article draws from the main results of the “Report on Welfare State 2019µ edited by the author. In the first part, the occupational welfare is analysed: the historical context of the most comprehensive state-market relations in which it developed; the reasons and the economic and social effects of its spread; its areas of intervention, and the dimensions it has assumed in the different countries and in Italy; its connections to the welfare state; its links with employer-trade union relationships, productivity trends, decentralised wage bargaining, and wage trends; and its effects on inequalities in the access to social goods and services. In the following two parts, the social and economic policies implemented in Europe and in Italy, and the quantitative and qualitative trends of expenditure are examined, specifically concerning: trends and policies regarding the labour market; demographic and migration trends; education and healthcare; social safety nets; inequalities; the programmes aimed at reducing poverty; and the basic income guarantee (reddito di cittadinanza), a measure recently introduced in Italy. Finally, the analysis focuses on the measures adopted by the Italian Government in relation to the pension system, as well as on the forecasts, problems, and recommendations concerning the public and the private systems.