Lavoro, democrazia e nuove forme di cittadinanza : la partecipazione dei lavoratori in una prospettiva storica

From the first ideas on the establishment of a “constitutional regime” in the factory to the most recent reform of company law, the issue of worker participation in the control or management of companies has transversely covered the whole of the Twentieth century and the comparison on the different ways of its realization did not fail with the start of the new century. The essay reviews some of the different phases into which this comparison is structured in Italy and focuses on some periodizing nodes: the First World War, the Constituent period and the Seventies. The debate among the members of Constituent Assembly assumes a particular centrality at a time when the theme is reformulated in relation to the connection work-citizenship and to the birth of the newly defined concept of the “working citizen”. The decision to recognize the importance of the topic by enclosing it in a Constitution article (46 art.) made it possible to keep the debate alive and to reformulate the issue adapting it to the changes occurred in society, despite the breaking of the constituent compromise in the Seventies and the affirmation of a new relationship between capital and labor as a result of the loss of centrality of the large factory.