Employers in social economy and their added social value (from Community soft law to the precursor Spanish law of social economy)

Abstract

It is not an easy task for employers in social economy to be acknowledged and recognised, nor has this objective been achieved. What matters is not the legal form adopted, but the inspiring values and principles that are behind their actions in the markets (the spirit of the social economy). This study proposes that business capitalists and entrepreneurs in social economy be recognised within the private sector as indicated in the corresponding Community Act (the soft law) and our own pioneer Social Economy Act (objects of analysis). Along with the identification and legal (as well as social and economic) characterization of the above–mentioned businessmen, there is also a defense of the social economy sector that generates, if accompanied by effective public advocacy, a countervailing power in the markets. A real power –of competition and economic collaboration, and of pressure and social negotiation– that pushes forward in the inalienable public proposition of subjugating (socially, in this case) the hegemonic economic powers that are devoid of effective checks and balances (the capitalist spirit of our times). This real power, as summarized in the Epilogue, socially encourages and directs corporate pluralism, the economic and social efficiency of economic competition and the very concept of enterprise and the entrepreneur, in our social State and the European social model.