L’incidenza dei fattori ”pro-elderly” e ”pro-status” sulle politiche di reddito minimo in Italia

Anti-poverty measures in the forms of guaranteed minimum income in the Italian scenario (Sostegno per l’inclusione attiva, Reddito di inclusione, Reddito di cittadinanza, Assegno di inclusione) share the features of high selectivity and high conditionality, with a strong occupational and residual connotation if compared to other European welfare regimes. This paper aims to investigate the reasons of these peculiarities and the persistence of problematic issues related to social policies in Italy with special regard to the relationship between the categories of subjects that are excluded (outsiders) or are beneficiaries (insiders) of such measures. Starting from a path dependency approach, which combines the interpretative model of welfare systems’ age orientation developed by Lynch and the theories presented by Esping-Andersen and Ferrera on welfare regimes, the paper aims to demonstrate that the lack of stability, in the Fordist, post-Fordist and post-crisis phases, of minimum income measures that have institutionalized, in a universalistic sense, the social risk of poverty depends on majorities opposing progressive social spending, prone to protect pro-elderly and prostatus legacy policy of the Italian social spending model.