Sulla possibilità di misurare la solidarietà

Abstract

The author proposes to verify the hypothesis implicit in the title of the study: whether solidarity present in a social order is measurable in the sense that it is possible to verify the presence of more or less solidarity and therefore the compatibility of solidarity and other principles, in particular that of the free market. In the first part of the study the author defines the notion of solidarity which he intends to inform his own research, specifically a system of social protection, but different from that utilized in investigations of a sociological or historical character. He excludes, therefore, the protection of health from his own field of research, considering this inspired by principles in part diverse from those which inform other compartments of the social security order. He then deals with the central theme of the study, evaluating the »quantity« of solidarity present in the pension systems, both public and complementary, and in the forms of tutelage for the conditions of general need in the labour market. Having received a positive reply to the question posed in the title, the author finally passes in review the normative principles in regard to solidarity present in the text of the Constitution for Europe in the recently signed treaty, concluding with a positive note on the possibility – where supported by political will and capacity – that from this text the presence of solidarity in the social orders of the continent will be reinforced.