DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL ECONOMY AND SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN SLOVAKIA

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship is a long-discussed issue in the countries of the European Union as well as in other countries worldwide. In the Slovak Republic this issue mostly interests younger people who search the possibilities for social entrepreneurship in their home regions in order to eliminate the lack of accessibility of certain services. The social economy is considered as an important tool of social inclusion. The Slovak Republic adopted as one of the few Member States of the European Union the act on social economy and social enterprises. We consider the creation of legislative framework of social economy and social enterprises in Slovakia as an innovative solution, even in the comparison with other Member States of the European Union. The aim of this paper is to present to the scientific public the importance of setting up social enterprises at the national level. An essential addition to the objective is also to show the width of potential that social enterprises have after the adoption of the Act on Social Economy and Social Enterprises.

Legislation eliminates potential debatable redistribution of the profit of social enterprises. The profit from social entrepreneurship should primarily cover the basic life needs of the disadvantaged groups of persons as well as generally beneficial activities for the community and/or region. Social entrepreneurship gets into discourse of public policy mainly as a tool aimed to provide the opportunity for the persons that were unemployed for a longer time to gain working habits again or for persons that suffer from multiple disadvantages to become active on the labour market. It may also be a reliable instrument for solving the sale of goods or provision of services which are not provided or insufficiently provided by the private sector.