In Mexico coexist many types of organizations that correspond to various legal figures: ejidos, communities, cooperatives, social solidarity societies, rural production societies, rural associations of collective interest,... [ view full abstract ]
In Mexico coexist many types of organizations that correspond to various legal figures: ejidos, communities, cooperatives, social solidarity societies, rural production societies, rural associations of collective interest, credit unions, community financial societies, unregulated multiple object financial societies, commercial societies (with participation of organizations of the social sector of the economy of at least 51% of its share capital), civil associations, civil societies, private welfare institutions, private charitable institutions and social groups (not constituted as a legal figure) that perform social entrepreneurship. These types of organizations have multiple differences (objectives, characteristics, process of constitution, structure, requirements and legal records, etc.) and are regulated by different laws.
For some time, several of these types of organizations were integrated into a group called social sector of the economy, then in the Third Sector, later in the civil society organizations and now in the social economy, but it is not just a matter of names or fashion: each of these terms includes some types of organizations and excludes others.
Therefore, this paper intends to analyze each of the concepts used in Mexico related to the social economy (and sets of organizations that correspond to each one of them) to determine if they constitute different models of social economy and which legal attributes facilitate or obstruct the fulfillment of its social mission.
The methodology consists of extract from the respective laws the main features of each legal figure, to draw up comparative tables of these mutually and, with the dimensions and indicators of the European Research Network (EMES) and the International Comparative Social Enterprise Models (ICSEM) Project, of which this research is a part, that are indicated below:
An economic project: A continuous production, Some paid work, and An economic risk
A social mission: An explicit social aim, Limited profit distribution, reflecting the primacy of social aim, and An initiative launched by a group of citizens or a third sector organization(s)
A participatory governance: A high degree of autonomy, A participatory nature, which involves various parties affected by the activity, and A decision-making power not based on capital ownership
Notwithstanding what the laws specified as requirements, some of them are true only "on paper" but in practice there are organizations that work differently so -based on empirical knowledge of many of them- an assessment will be made of the presence of the indicator in any, some, many or all organizations of every type.
The identification of the legal figures that tend to comply more fully with these indicators has primarily academic consequences and for the development of public policy proposals but, at the same time, it will be a basic input for the design of the field work of the ICSEM Project.
