ABSTRACT
In the wake of charismatic social entrepreneurs, the new venture is philanthropic. Within this perspective, social action is related to voluntary giving, corporate social responsibility and benefit corporations. One of the main problems for deepening the knowledge about social enterprise is the frequent confusion between the two forms of solidarities: democratic and philanthropic. Solidarity’s past allows the possibilities of its future to be seen well with the open perspective for redesigning the concept of social enterprise. Whereas in democratic solidarity civil society was taken into account through its public space dimension, in the philanthropic solidarity approach, civil society occupies the space of private free initiative according to a liberal tradition. The aforementioned form of solidarity implementation was embedded in democratic dynamics. As in Spain, social action could rely on the return of charity but it was a form of philanthropy that aimed to replace democratic solidarity.
