The definition
The social economy is the economy which is aimed at the development of a personality and, as a target, wants to reach social progress. This kind of activity is characteristic of big corporations and associations, the main target of which is to provide the society with the needed goods and services. Robert Owen is considered to be the founder of the cooperative movement and he has created its theoretical base. Having become the owner of the factory in Switzerland he tried to improve the split of income between the employees and to make the capital goods of the company a common property. He has written a book the main idea of which is the creation of the economic system based on the production co-operations.
The principal of the modern social economy lays in the self-organization of the employees which is realized without the involvement of the owners of the factories. The first social association was created on the textile factory in Great Britain in 1844. It happened in the middle of the industrial revolution.
The main principals
The main principle of the social economy is that the interests of people are more important than the capital. The person and social targets must prevail. This important prerequisite lies at the base of the democratic, transparent and autonomous management. In such organizations, the decisions are made in a democratic way and the interests of the employees and society are taken into consideration. The results of their work are split between the employees according to their inputs into the results of the company. In such a way, the person receives the salary, which corresponds to his or her contribution into the results of the organization.
Social economy implies the principle of the humanity which considers person’s recognition, protection of his rights, creation of the conditions of the person’s self-actualization to be the main values.
The principle of social fairness involves a fair value of the workforce, fair income, an increase of the minimal salary up to the medium one, control of the level of salary of the top management.
The principle of the economic efficiency reflects an optimal ratio between the volume of social expenses and CAPEX allowance.
The principle of the priority of the governmental activities in the sphere of the social protection of the citizens means that the government has to secure a sufficient level of life for those who cannot do that themselves due to some objective reasons.
All the principles are aimed to maintain the optimal ratio between the spheres of production and consumption and they are considered to be the base of the work of the mechanism of the social defense.
