The Ministry of Labour and Social Security acquired particular relevance in post-war reconstruction, the issues of labour and unemployment having become major grounds of conflict and debate both within the political forces and in the public opinion. With reference to the transition from Fascism to republican Italy, this branch of the Administration appears as an interesting benchmark for evaluating the factors of both continuity and rupture with the past regime. Suppressed by Fascism in 1923, it revived with the Parri cabinet as a most significant novelty in the shouldering of governmental responsibilities by the Resistance forces. Up until the split of the anti-Fascist front in May 1947 the Ministry was guided by socialist representatives, later on until 1950 by Christian-democrat Amintore Fanfani. Yet in the administrative apparatus a prominent role was maintained by the top ranks of the previous Ministry of Corporations. This essay sketches a political profile of the ministry in the quinquennium 1945-1950 — its internal organization and activity, the competences it came to assume in the course of time and the notable action of its territorial branches: the labour agencies and inspectorates, restructured in each single province.
Keywords: Fascism, republican Italy, continuity-rupture, reconstruction, Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Ministry of Corporations