Dalla concessione al diritto soggettivo. Cittadinanza e assistenza nel dibattito sull’attuazione costituzionale

The issue of the right to assistance in Italian legislation is often limited to the analysis of article 38 of the Constitution. However, the legitimation of the citizen’s subjective right to assistance was the result of a long process: the continuity of the principles of Crispi’s “legal charity”, the programmatic character of social rights, and the stratification of regulations led to its substantial denial in administrative practice for thirty years. The article aims to carry out a study of the political, administrative, and legal debate that followed the approval of article 38, focusing on the ideal and conceptual factors that inspired public policies. The author reviews the stages of the enlargement of social citizenship, focusing in particular on post-war assistance, on the social protection of the civil blind launched in 1954, on the period of economic planning during the 1960s, and on regionalization during the 1970s.