Economia sociale di mercato e nuovi rapporti pubblico-privato nell'esperienza europea

The economic and financial crisis has introduced elements of a profound break from the more recent past, questioning the fundamentals of globalization and leading to the superiority of market mechanisms over public institutions. This led to a marginalization of the State in the government of the economy, while increasing the importance of economic actors with greater market power, typically large enterprises. These phenomena accelerated the debate over globalization and the need for redefining public-private relationships. Europe, in fact, is now building a new model of public-private relationships that is built on the principle of subsidiarity. The Lisbon Treaty aims to achieve a new stage in the European unification, the economic union, through a constitutional order based on subsidiarity and the explicit reference to the social market economy. In this sense, the lessons derived from the historical model of social market economy can be generalized to understand the importance of institutions in establishing a new socio-economic model and a new global order. This paper aims at contributing to the debate on the future prospects of the European socio-economic model. Starting from the theme of social market economy in a historical perspective in order to understand today’s relevance, the study aims at highlighting the examples of concrete achievements which are currently affecting the core of Europe. The reference is to innovative cluster and innovative business models, which are emerging in original public-private relations, in which the public actor plays a central role in strategic planning. In this sense, it is interesting to understand whether these phenomena can give a contribution to the construction of a new social market economy and therefore to serve as interpretive key to understanding the changes taking place.