Mutualità d'impresa e Welfare State: sopravvivenza e declino delle casse sostitutive

In the industrial sector, healthcare originated early and from the lower echelons as companies founded their own Corporate Welfare entities. Management and coordination difficulties led to the gradual centralization of those competencies by the Italian State. This inevitably generated resistance from said organizations. Following the WWII the survival of numerous pre-existing highlighted diverse aspects of the relationship betwen the National Welfare State and corporate welfare assistance. In particular, it is possibl to evaluate on the one hand the role played by tradition and organizational flexibility in promoting the continued presence of decentralized solutions, while on the other hand the difficulties associated with progressive specialization of welfare assistance having costs dynamics which were and are difficult to control. The management of corporate welfare services seems to have had repercussions in the attitudes taken by the social partners and the relationship between them.