ABSTRACT
In February 1901 Giovanni Giolitti became Minister of the Interior and by November 1903 he was Prime Minister. Giolitti's policy of concessions took various forms, including attempts to develop the Southern economy. Public works were also important, and by 1907 the government was spending 50 per cent more on them than in 1900. Above all, there was social legislation. This period saw the first effective State welfare measures. Italy entered a period of stable parliamentary government, without excitement or adventures; a period of social reforms and economic prosperity, during which popular discontent could be bought off, and the Catholic, Radical or Socialist subversives could be integrated even further into the existing political system. It was the first visible attempt to absorb part of the labour movement into the existing political structure, the first formal recognition that labour had to be allowed its own institutional role in the Italian State.
