Social enterprise as Communised Capitalism: Towards a collectivist, redistributive and egalitarian economic growth model for developing countries

Abstract

This paper is written as a tribute to the late Professor Kaseke. He was to us a colleague, friend and academic mentor. As a student of social planning and a social development proponent, Professor Kaseke's work, just like many other social planners; was partly focused on finding practical ways to harmonize the simultaneous pursuit of social and economic objectives. This paper builds on this work; we argue that the social enterprise model of operation that has characterised the nonprofit sector globally over the past few years can be adopted at a macro level as a socio- economic model for developing countries. For years, social workers and social development planners have battled to find ways to harmonise the simultaneous pursuit of social and economic objectives. Lessons drawn from researching social enterprises show its potential as a typology of organisation with a model of operation that can be adopted at a macro level leading to a new economic model. Such an economic order would lead to a collectivist, redistributive and egalitarian growth model based on communised capitalism.It is our contention that, using state interventionism, the social enterprise model can be adopted at a macro level to create a three-tier economic order in which capitalism coexists alongside communised capitalism. Capitalism in its current configuration has led to high levels of poverty and inequality in most developing countries. While we may not totally  dispense with capitalism, lessons gleaned from the operations of social enterprises point towards a potential for a new type of economic system that could potentially bring a more just and equitable socio-economic order in developing countries.

Key words: Captalism, communised capitalism, social enterprise, poverty, inequality