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Il presente lavoro intende esaminare il processo di decision making relativo alla politica sociale statunitense sviluppatosi a partire dalla fine degli anni Sessanta, fornendo un’analisi di carattere «istituzionalista» che ponga in rilievo gli snodi cruciali del dibattito relativo al welfare system federale svoltosi sia all’interno del Congresso, sia presso i think tank, i centri universitari, le organizzazioni culturali e religiose, le lobby e le altre realtà associative emerse dalla società civile. In particolare, la ricerca si concentra sull’intreccio tra ideologia politica, mentalità tradizionale, opinione pubblica e interessi specifici, e sull’influsso esercitato dalla dimensione culturale e istituzionale sul processo legislativo. Sono stati individuati quattro principali indirizzi socio-politici, ciascuno dei quali ha avuto un particolare influsso su altrettante ‘fasi’ del processo di riforma del welfare system statunitense svoltosi tra il 1968 e il 2006. L’analisi del dibattito culturale e politico è stata suddivisa pertanto in quattro diversi capitoli (capp. 2-5) che consentono di delineare percorsi distinti per le diverse ipotesi socio-culturali individuate, ai quali viene anteposta una premessa storica relativa alle origini del sistema assistenziale e previdenziale statunitense e alle politiche riformiste degli anni Sessanta (cap. 1). / The dissertation examines the process of decision making that determined the development of U.S. social policy from the end of the Sixties. It analyzes the institutional character of the debate that took place inside the Congress and inside the think tanks, the academic centers, the cultural and religious foundations and other associations. In particular, the research is focused on the tangle between political ideologies, traditional culture, public opinion and legislative process. The dissertation identifies four different socio-political streams: each of them influenced a particular “phase” of the reform of the U.S. welfare system from 1968 up to 2006. The analysis of the cultural and political debate has been divided in four chapters (chapters 2-5) that allow to delineate different developments for the four streams, after an historical premise (chapter 1) that presents the origins of American welfare system, from the colonial times to the Sixties.

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Abstract The thesis deals with the US foreign policy under Richard Nixon. More specifically, it examines the US rapprochement with Communist China (PRC) and the triangular diplomatic relations between the US, USSR, and PRC. The thesis draws from the realist theories, particularly the offensive and defensive branches of neorealism represented by John Mearsheimer and Kenneth Waltz. The thesis applies the theoretical concept of wedging strategies as power-balancing tools on the selected US foreign policy. The thesis conducts a qualitative case study using the process-tracing method. A causal mechanism derived from the concept of wedging strategies is theorized and further applied in the analysis. The analysis of the US foreign policy towards China examines the individual traces in the theorized mechanisms. The results of the study show that the US broke the Sino-Soviet alliance using a defensive wedging strategy by exploiting the Sino-Soviet split, resulting in PRC's dealignment with the USSR. The US reapproached the PRC and swayed the Chinese leadership with strategic guarantees tacitly aimed against the USSR. These guarantees were ultimately projected into the Shanghai Communique of 1972.