Promoting Social Economy as an Instrument for Institutional Change: The Case of Bulgaria

The following paper presents three related narratives. The first one looks at the dynamics of definitions of social economy and social enterprises. The second presents the Bulgarian perspective on social enterprises from different data sources with a focus on particular regulatory gaps, which impede the development of specific social enterprises in Bulgaria, called chitalishte. They have the longest and most steady tradition in the country among the not-for-profit organizations. The third narrative presents a story of non-profit social enterprises as agents of institutional change. The examples used in the paper arose in different time periods, have different specifics, but all emphasize the importance of the economic and social environment for the degree of sway on the institutional profile of chitalishta. The specific forms of Bulgarian social entities were studied in order to demonstrate their potential for institutional changes, expected level of impact, and compliance with coherent policies. Some regulatory deficiencies that narrow the scope of their action were also analyzed.