’ s autonomous operation. the right to work in many cases still has to be realized. the conditions for achieving a satisfactory level of employment vary with the changes in the economic context, the state of technology, the organization of society, and the relations between economies and states. the right to employment is realized in the first place through growth and development. in the 3rd subcommittee of the constituent assembly, fanfani was the rapporteur for matters concerning the social control of economic activity. the text, approved after a series of amendments, affirms the freedom of private initiative, but draws attention to its social function. while recognizing economic freedom, a proviso is introduced allowing the public authorities to set limits in order to protect the general interest. in recent years this principle has been widely debated ; some have seen it as conflicting, in a changing economic reality, with the principle of competition, which in the meantime has become widely established in the legal order. but it needs to be reaffirmed that, even in the present context, the relationship between freedom of enterprise and public regulation and control remains valid, albeit to differing degrees. in the period of postwar reconstruction fanfani, coming from the experience of the great depression, operated in a political and economic system characterized by an extensive presence of the state in the economy. it was certainly not a question of a planned economy ; it was a conception of economic life that, based on social guidelines, lay somewhere between liberalism and statism. 3. after the catastrophe of the second world war, state intervention in the economy played an essential role, mobilizing the nation ’ s best intellects and with the inefficiency that would later cripple it still far off. in the 1930s the public sector accounted for about 15 per cent of the economy in the industrial nations. the depression that swept the private sector had a devastating impact, with major political repercussions, in the absence of the stabilizing effect of a substantial sector not subject to cyclical swings. in the 1950s the state ’ s share of the economy in all the economically advanced countries was near 30 per cent. by the 1980s it had reached and in several countries exceeded 50 per cent. problems of efficiency and rigidity became increasingly evident. in the 1950s amintore fanfani fought to put the principles of the constitution into practice and guarantee economic and social rights and freedoms : the right to work, to housing, to a more equitable distribution of wealth. on various

with the most important representatives of socialism. catholic economists and sociologists – from the italian scholar giuseppe toniolo to the germanic intellectual carl von vogelsang – analysed the problems of capitalism and proposed new models of work organization ( see o. kohler, la formazione dei cattolicesimi nella societa moderna, in storia della chiesa, vol. ix : la chiesa negli stati moderni e i movimenti sociali 1878 - 1914, milan, jaca book, 1982, pp. 234 - 239, and o. de dinechin, sj, rerum novarum, in ‘ aggiornamenti sociali ’, 3, 2019, pp. 258 - 262 ). 1. war cannot generate prosperity humanity cannot thrive without peace, and neither can the economy. in the countries involved in a conflict, war seriously damages the drivers of growth. 4 hostilities destroy productive capital : infrastructure, machinery and raw materials. they claim victims, especially among the young generations, bending learning opportunities and the formation of a skilled workforce to the requirements of war. this reduces the availability and quality of ‘ human capital ’. furthermore, wars often erode social capital, 5 thereby weakening social cohesion and trust in institutions. the war effort supports aggregate demand and can stimulate innovation, but seriously distorts its purposes. the economic benefits are short - lived and do not remove the need to reconvert the economy once a conflict is over, even in countries that were involved in the conflict but suffered no direct damage to their territory. the high inflation and the steep fall of economic activity that often mark wartime periods are signs of the damage that wars inflict on the economic fabric ( figure 2 ). the manufacturing of war equipment does not help increase a country ’ s growth potential. 6 development comes from productive investment, not from arms. that is why, in the 1930s, john maynard keynes proposed a massive rise in public investment spending as a solution to economic depression in the united states, suggesting that president roosevelt ’ s focus should be on ‘ the rehabilitation of the physical condition of the railroads ’. 7 moreover, it is misleading to attribute technological progress to military expenditure. it is scientific research that sparks innovation. military investment can generate innovation if it is allocated to research. 8 however, we do not need to resort to war for this : technologies developed for military purposes only translate into progress when they later find civilian applications. war is therefore a