Book. It is a pendulum movement which is observed over long historical time. He describes a “oscillation between the attempt at an all-state and the hope of self-regulation of the markets”. And don’t fail to question analysts of the social and solidarity economy. Why has this third way never succeeded in calling into question what appears to be perpetual movement? “How can we explain that it has not become an alternative widely discussed in society and the political sphere? » This is the central question posed by the economist Robert Boyer, one of the fathers of regulation theory, in his new work The social and solidarity economy. A realistic utopia for the 21st centurye century ? (Little Mornings).
A question renewed today in view of “the intensity and conjunction of the social, financial, health and climate crises that have shaken the world in recent decades. They “open up the possibility of a (…) renewal of solidarity”, believes the author. Time – the” Golden age ” – has the social and solidarity economy arrived? Would the situation finally be favorable to the advent of a new socio-economic model built around it?
To respond to this problem, Mr. Boyer delivers throughout the pages an approach combining economic theories and historical analyses. In doing so, it describes the mechanisms which have, over time, governed the development of the social and solidarity economy. She is above all, for the author, the daughter of crises. The social and solidarity economy “feeds on the limits of both market mechanisms, incapable of ensuring social peace, and the interventions of a central State disconcerted by the inadequacy and ineffectiveness of its procedures in the face of emerging problems which risk undermining its legitimacy”.
“Second-rate solutions”
This is what happened, for example, in Argentina, where economic crises saw the development of local currencies. Innovative processes that supported “a minimum of economic activity and limited[é] the fall into extreme poverty ». The social and solidarity economy subsequently declined as the crisis faded and the market regained its capacity for action.
The social and solidarity economy would thus only be the ” crutch “ socio-economic systems in place, providing support through innovative measures, before returning to bed when the difficulties recede. Mr. Boyer agrees: “Never has a crisis, even severe, propelled a transition from a capitalist economy to a regime based on solidarity and reciprocity. »
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