ABSTRACT
The International Year of the Family announced by the UN provided the opportunity for a vast, worldwide debate that enormously emphasized the central role of the family in society and social policies. The rights of family citizenship refer to the functions of the family as a social relationship of mediation. The family can be at the centre of such a culture, as a moment of necessary mediation between the various environments and dimensions of daily life. In patriarchal society, the family was recognized and supported with specific benefits to the extent to which the family head accepted the delegation of functions from the state for the social control of women and children. The welfare state has been built on the idea that a government is more socially oriented to the extent to which it includes a growing number of individuals – classified by social category – within the state's guarantees.
