fostering social strongenterprisestrong a historical and international.pdfVIP

FOSTERING SOCIAL ENTERPRISE: A HISTORICAL AND INTERNATIONAL ANALYSIS MATTHEW F. DOERINGER* INTRODUCTION Several states in the United States are attempting to nurture the growth of social enterprise by adopting statutes which enable the registration of Low-Profit Limited Liability Companies (“L3Cs”). The L3C is the first American legal form to embrace and facilitate social enterprise. However, Belgium and the United Kingdom created legal forms to achieve similar ends many years prior to the creation of the L3C. The Belgian and U.K. experiences with these legal forms as well as the historical treatment of social enterprise in the United States provide lessons for how the United States should regulate the L3C and social enterprise in general. This paper tracks the development of social enterprise in the United States and Europe and ultimately proposes that effective government policies need to stimulate capital investment in social enterprise and generate greater public understanding of the sector’s potential benefits. Part I discusses the history and development of social enterprise as a concept and as a sector of the economy in the United States and Europe. Part II discusses the difficulties of adapting the nonprofit and the for-profit corporate forms to entities operating as social enterprises in the United States. Part III discusses social enterprise in Europe and how the governments in Belgium and the United Kingdom have attempted to stimulate growth of social enterprise by cr