Determinants of the Adoption of the Social Economy Act

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to present the determinants underlying the enactment of the Act on the Social Economy. The social economy constitutes a statutory concept of broad meaning. The Act provides that the social economy is an activity carried out for the benefit of the local community, consisting of engagement in three principal spheres: (1) social and vocational reintegration; (2) a solidarity-based dimension implemented by social economy entities; and (3) the provision of social services. The analysis covers social determinants (the creation of new jobs for persons at risk of social exclusion and the development of the participation of social economy entities in the delivery of social services to local communities), economic determinants (the Strategy for Responsible Development, the National Programme for the Development of the Social Economy, and the Accessibility Plus Programme), financial determinants (funds derived from the 2021-2027 financial perspective under the European Social Fund Plus, as well as approximately PLN 200 million under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan), and legal determinants (the Convention of 13 December 2006 on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the need to define a catalogue of social economy entities and to provide a legal definition of a social enterprise).