Explaining Quebec's Social Economy Turn

Abstract. Topic 13; Stage 1; Macro level of analysis. This study argues that investigating the social economy is necessary to fully understand social investment politics and the specificity of the Quebec social model within... [ view full abstract ]

Abstract. Topic 13; Stage 1; Macro level of analysis. This study argues that investigating the social economy is necessary to fully understand social investment politics and the specificity of the Quebec social model within Canada. Quebec has been structuring and promoting a social economy sector since the mid-1990s. No other province has taken this path. Why? The analysis demonstrates that transnational learning from Francophone Europe cannot account for Quebec’s social economy turn. The strength and mobilization of Quebec’s Left in the mid-1990s, followed by coalition engineering during the 1996 Economy and Employment Summit, more convincingly account for Quebec’s distinct trajectory. Consistent with power resource theory (PRT), at the agenda-setting stage, protagonists of Quebec’s social economy policies were associated with the Left. Contrary to what is assumed by PRT, however, at the decision stage, the Right’s consent to social economy policies was not conditioned by a weak bargaining position or by a fear of antagonizing voters.