The social economy and the state: linking ambitions with institutions in Québec, Canada

English In rapidly developing policy fields such as that of the social economy, institutions play a central role in delimiting the range of the possible. This article suggests that social democratic policy analysts have given too much attention to the financial and operational autonomy of social economy organisations from the state, and have avoided specifying what sort of new state institutions might allow these organisations to reach their progressive ambitions. The experience of Québec, Canada, is used to illustrate how, in the absence of this institutional programme, existing centres of state power can deflect the social economy in a neoliberal direction.