Based on unedited archival sources, the essay examines the trends of Italian Welfare State during the ‘80s and the ‘90s and tries to answer the most important questions on: the relations between Welfare system and the policy-making of Italian party-system; the reasons why the contradictions of the Welfare were not solved during the ‘80s; the interaction of different factors that determined the huge change at the beginning of the ‘90s; the influence of the welfare burden on the collapse of Italian political system at the beginning of the ‘90s.
Keywords: Italian Welfare system; Italian Party system; the collapse of Italian political system.

Paolo Mattera, Welfare System and policy making in Italy during the Eighties and the Nineties. A proposal of analysis in "VENTUNESIMO SECOLO" 39/2016, pp. 66-91, DOI:10.3280/XXI2016-039005