Between Public and Private. The house as a Primary Good for the Social City

If we wish to study welfare states, we must begin with a set of criteria that define their role in society. This role is certainly not to spend or tax; nor is necessarily that of creating equality. It is generally believed that welfare-state backlash movements, tax revolts and roll backs are ignited when social expenditure burdens become too heavy. Anti welfare state backlash sentiments over the past decade have generally been weakest where welfare spending has been heaviest, and vice-versa. Why? The risks of welfare state backlash depend not on spending but on the class character of the welfare states. Middle-class welfare states, be they social democratic (as in Scandinavia) or corporatist (as in Germany), forge middle-class loyalties. In contrast the liberal, residualist welfare state found in the USA, Canada and, increasingly, in Britain, depend on the loyalties of a numerically weak, and often politically residual, social stratum. In this sense, the class coalitions in which the three welfare-state regime-types were founded, explain not only their past evolution but also their future prospects.

Ferdinando Trapani esamina le condizioni più strutturali del social housing, con riferimenti certi di teoria urbanistica di livello internazionale, ma con solidi principi di scelta pianificatoria nel complesso tema del risparmio del suolo.