Despite its broad legal recognition, many do not consider the right to work to be a genuine right. The reason: its identification with the public promotion of full employment, a goal that is probably unattainable in capitalist societies. The right to work therefore appears as a sort of pious wish, if not a dangerous idea: taken seriously, guaranteeing it would require a state that has little respect for private economic initiative. This book recovers an alternative conception of it. Coined by Fourier in the early 19th century, the ‘right to work’ is reinterpreted in 1848 by a new type of socialism, heir of the republican and democratic thought of the French Revolution. This socialism does not expect the state to control the entire economy, but rather that the world of work be governed by the same egalitarian principles that regulate the political sphere.
University of Barcelona, Spain - ORCID: 0000-0002-9616-7678
Book Title
La formazione del socialismo repubblicano in Francia
Book Subtitle
Storia politica del diritto al lavoro (1789-1848)
Authors
Pablo Scotto
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
308
Publication Year
2026
Copyright Information
© 2026 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0850-5
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0849-9
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0850-5
eISBN (epub)
979-12-215-0851-2
Series Title
Studi e saggi
Series ISSN
2704-6478
Series E-ISSN
2704-5919