Legal Basis for Ensuring Sustainable Corporate Governance of an Italian Social Cooperative

The Italian model of social entrepreneurship has been based on Christian values, social solidarity and business practices for almost a century. In this area, the transition of law formation to law-making was extremely slow. The formation of the institutional environment actually began only after the adoption of the Constitution of 1947, the provisions of which were specified in the legislation only in 1991. At the same time, in the process of long evolution, the legal basis for social and socially significant functions of cooperation without motivation for profit was formed. Declaring participation in the development of social entrepreneurial institutions, the Italian state at the same time ensured supervision over the observance of the goal of social cooperation. The regulation, in force since 1991, regulates three areas: the provision of social services and assistance in finding employment and the production of products for the socially poor. The adjustment of the Italian model of legal regulation in 2005 singled out the third mixed group, which included A + B cooperatives, combining the models of «social and labor integration», «sustainable development» and «public benefit». The new legal framework took into account the interests of employees of cooperatives, as well as other interested individuals and groups, which made the Italian legal model a European model for regulating social entrepreneurship. Thus, the trend towards sustainable development has been realized. Less attention is paid to the problems of corruption and fictitious cooperation.