ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the mutual interests of social enterprises (SEs)/social entrepreneurs and neo-liberal policy-makers/stakeholders. It offers a brief historical discussion of the evolution of SEs in Western Europe from the nineteenth century to the 1970s. The chapter focuses on how these institutions changed from 1980 to the present. It also focuses on the role political institutions at all levels played in reshaping the sector. The chapter discusses the connections between SEs and market forces, and how these connections produced dramatic changes. It addresses how our cross-temporal analysis can help understand contemporary SEs and welfare regimes. The chapter describes the historical evolution of solidarity in the context of the sweeping changes that have been made to various welfare regimes. It provides a fair assessment of the evolution and growth of the welfare sector across Europe, as well as how these predecessors have affected current SEs.
