ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an analysis that deals with a topic that rests at the centre of public debate: the impact of the welfare state and, of the legislation regulating the labour market with regards income inequality. The chapter addresses the quite controversial and politically central question of the relationship between the welfare state and income distribution. To date social stratification research has devoted limited attention to the role of the welfare state, despite its crucial economic importance in Western democracies; it address this issue. The Italian context as a case study, the aim of the present analysis is to use the case of a key policy area, labour market reforms, to examine why the reformed institutional structures of the Italian welfare state cannot counterbalance the unequal income distribution. In countries like Italy and Germany, the welfare state is more focussed upon income maintenance or economic security rather than equality.
