Nowadays, the European Integration process is challenged by a rise in anti-establishment parties proposing policies reactionary to globalization. Italy, one of Europe’s founding nations and largest economies, leads this change with the Five Star – Lega Nord coalition government. The change in voting behavior urges a serious reflection on the social unease causing it. The prevailing view argues that the effects of welfare state reforms on labor market conditions has been a leading cause of the rise of populism. To operationalize this claim, Esping-Andersen’s decommodification index is used in the article, drawing social security data from 1980 to 2015 for Italy’s pensions, unemployment and sickness benefits. The results are plotted against key watershed reforms of the Italian Welfare State and confirm a decrease in social security performance experienced by the latter in the analyzed period.
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