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As mentioned in the previous section, in Latin America the social and solidarity economy is quite a recent phenomenon, which has been developing mainly in the last two decades. Studies carried out in the 90s described the cooperative sector in Latin America as composed by a number of organizations varying between 30,000 and 50,000, with a number of members comprised between 17 and 23 millions, depending on the source consulted. These varying data testify one of the greatest weaknesses of the cooperative sector in Latin America: the lack of struc- tural studies and of longitudinal data collected over time. Furthermore, data are biased by the lack of legal recognition that these organizations have in many Latin American countries, where they are active de facto as informal organizations due to the lack of enabling legal frameworks.

According to recent studies carried out by ILO and ICA (Interna- tional Cooperative Alliance), cooperative enterprises in Latin America have been reinforced by the economic crisis, and the number of cooper- atives is constantly increasing. However, a great heterogeneity charac- terizes Latin American countries, for what concerns origins, dimensions, legal recognition, economic impact, and number of organizations (e.g. 13,000 cooperatives in Argentina in 2008; 6,500 in Brasil in 2010; 2000 in Chile in 2004; 10,000 in Mexico in 2010). Cooperatives, and more in general the social and solidarity economy sector, have recently started to capture the attention of policy makers and scholars, but existing spe- cialized research institutions are still recent and policies still inadequate to support the potential of cooperatives as fundamental actors of socio- economic development.

The social and solidarity economy in Mexico 57 50,000 organizations with around 8 millions members (Rojas, 2011a), even though also in this case complete and structural studies are still lacking. Some data estimate that workers employed in the sector repre- sent 18 percent of active population and that the social and solidarity economy sector contributes to the 5 percent of the Mexican GDP (Rojas, 2011b). The sector comprises also associations that do not necessarily have a productive nature, and informal organizations, which make diffi- cult the realization of a complete picture of the sector.

An overview of the legal provisions for the social and solidarity econ- omy sector implemented in Mexico can help in better understanding the context. The political Constitution of the United States of Mexico, ap- proved in 1917 and reformed several times successively, states:

The law will establish those mechanisms that favor the or- ganization and expansion of the social sector’s economic ac- tivity: ejidos , workers organizations, cooperatives, commu- nities, enterprises belonging in part or completely to their workers, and, in general, of all typologies of social organiza- tion devoted to the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services that are socially necessary (art. 25, ¨ı¿127).

In spite of this constitutional provision, Mexican institutions at var- ious levels have been favoring the expansion of the private national and foreign for profit sector, even in those sectors of activities that the Con- stitution declares fields of activity of the public sector. The support of the government has been directed in general towards small and medium enterprises, without distinguishing for profit and social and solidarity economy sector (Rojas, 2011a). Accordingly, a real institutional sup- port to the sector has been lacking and this shortage of specific policies has produced a scarce access to funding opportunities and a poor en- trepreneurial training and empowerment, with a consequent high infor- mality of productive activities in the sector (Rojas, 2011a).

In order to face this issue, a new law on social and solidarity economy was approved by the Mexican government and published on 23 of May 20125, after a process that started in 1998, and that was intensified during recent years. This law follows similar experiences occurred both in Spain, where the law on social economy was approved in 2011, and in other Latin American countries. Overall the sector has a weak legal framework in Latin America, and only in some countries there are specific laws: Honduras approved a law on Social Sector of Economy in 1984; Colombia approved the law n. 454 on Solidarity Economy in 1998; Ecuador in 2011 approved the law on Popular Economy; there are projects of law in Venezuela, in Dominican Republic and Brazil. In many Latin American countries there are specific laws on cooperatives and only in Paraguay, Argentina, Colombia, and Nicaragua, there are specific laws on mutual societies.

The new Mexican law on social and solidarity economy is the imple- mentation of the already cited art. 25 of the Constitution. The law, even though it does not provide a definition of the social and solidarity economy, defines the objectives of social and solidarity economy sectors, which are: i) to promote the integral development of human beings; ii) to contribute to the socio-economic development of the country, partic- ipating in production, distribution, and consumption of goods and ser- vices that are socially necessary; iii) to support education and training through practices which strengthen a culture of solidarity, creativity, and entrepreneurship; iv) to contribute to the exercise and betterment of par- ticipative democracy; v) to participate in designing plans, programs and projects of socio-economic development within the existing legislation; vi) to facilitate sector’s members participation and access to training, work, property, information, management, and equal distribution of benefits without any discrimination (art. 8).

5The full text, in Spanish, is available at

http://www.economiasolidaria.org/documentos/ ley de economia social y solidaria de mexico (accessed 16 November 2012).

Enterprises with a social aim and local development 59 The main objectives of the law are to establish mechanisms able to support the organization and expansion of the social and solidarity econ- omy sector, where the responsibility of this support is taken by the state; and to define rules for the organization and empowerment of the sec- tor as a mechanism that can contribute to socio-economic development through employment generation, strengthening of democracy, redistribu- tion of resources, and generation of social patrimony (art. 2).

The law also creates a National Institute of Social Economy, an au- tonomous institute that will be part of the Secretariat of Economy with the aim of defining and implementing public policies to support the so- cial economy sector. This institute will substitute the previous National Fund of Support to Solidarity Enterprises (FONAES - Fondo Nacional de Apoyo para las Empresas en Solidaridad). At present (November 2012) the institute has not yet been created, and some senators have asked for an extension of the period provided for by law (180 days) for its establishment.

Overall it is too early to judge the impact that this law can have on the sector, even though some critiques have been moved, especially for the changes that have been made with respect to the law proposal of 2007, that was believed more complete and potentially effective (Conde, 2013). Further studies are expected to prove the efficiency of this measures and the results that they will be able to provide in the coming years.

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Enterprises with a social aim and local