Key words: social enterprise, social economy, legal framework
Abstract
Social enterprises turn critical societal problems into opportunities by actively involving the community actors. The coagulation and development of the social enterprise phenomenon, corroborated with an increase of its visibility as public policy subject, prompts the need for an analysis of the organizational forms and legal frameworks these organizations are operating under. What interest have the policy makers to increase the organizational capacity of the social enterprises for an independent responsible examination of social problems and the associated approaches to resolve them are important questions to be answered.
Apparently, it was Drucker (1979), the first who coined the term ‘social enterprise’ while advocating ethical responsibilities of corporations (Trivedi, 2010). After more than thirty years of its emergence, it is a confusing list of socioeconomic and legal interpretations of the concept that are used either synonymously or differently. And because concepts implies root metaphors used in different cultures and disciplines (economics,
philosophy, sociology, et al.) to describe in a specific way the reality, the concepts are not value-free. Presumption is that scholars and legislators are familiar with the different ways that various disciplines define such concepts. But fact is that a plurality of overlapping interpretations of the concept with blurry boundaries generates some potential dangers.
On one hand, because of the variety of specific meanings behind this concept, there is a possibility that some people misunderstand what some others are communicating.
On the other hand, a potential danger of terminological confusion appears when concepts are transferred into legislation. In such case, concepts „start to live their own life” and the definitions will generate material consequences influencing people’ life. Problem is that using categories always generates exclusions and, like in the case of the tax legislation, whether an activity gets or not a tax-exemption it is not a trivial issue (Muukkonen, 2009).
Recently, and in different types of countries in terms of the structuration and institutionalization (DiMaggio and Powell) of a SE sector, governments and SE actors have been involved in drafting legal frameworks for social enterprise, social entrepreneurship, social economy or social and solidarity economy. Spain, Portugal have acts on social economy. France and Mexico have acts on social and solidarity economy. Brazil has a solidarity economy act, Greece has an act on social economy and social entrepreneurship. Many countries have specific social enterprises legislation (Italy, UK. France, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovenia).
The newer concepts of social enterprise, social entrepreneurship and solidarity economy, as the realities they indicate, coexist parallel or overlapping with the concept of social economy, being used differently and with different meanings in specific national contexts.
There is no law on social enterprises in Romania. However, each organizational form (associations, foundations, cooperatives, mutuals) is regulated by one law (more than one in the case of cooperatives). Currently, there is a debate about the classification of various organizational forms as social enterprises. The debate is intensified by the process of developing a legal framework in the field of social economy in Romania. In this respect, in 2011, a draft law regarding social economy was issued by the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Protection. It was redrafted couple of times, but it is not yet adopted. The principal research aim is to identify the legal framework aspects that are related to social enterprises’ organizational forms in Romania, mainly the draft of the law on social economy.
This article focuses on the different organizational types the social enterprises operate in Romania and, also, the way that the concept is reflected by the legal framework in Romania aiming to discuss its limitations in terms of content, connotations and interconnections.
