The historical path of social rights
Prerequisites
None
Programme
The course will follow the historical development of what, since the mid–20th century, we define as "social rights."
The course will reconstruct their historical path in terms of the history of ideas, the history of constitutionalism and social legislations and the analysis of the agencies coming from the various social actors. Finally, we will examine the intertwinment between social rights and human rights by analyzing the recent historiographical debate about human rights.
These are the stages on which we will focus on: 1) the French Revolution; 2) the 1848 revolutions; 3) the development of socialism and trade-unionism; 4) the birth of the modern Welfare state at the end of the Nineteenth century; 5) the galaxy of social Catholicism; 6) the turning point of the First World War; 7) the Welfare state without rights of the inter-war authoritarianism and totalitarianism; 8) the Second World War and the so-called "Spirit of Philadelphia"; 9) the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948; 10) the process of European integration and the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Educational aims
Teaching the hisotry of social rights.
Bibliographical references
During the first lesson, students will be provided with a syllabus with the readings for the various lessons.