Comparative analysis of Public-Social and Solidarity Economy Partnerships (PSSEPs) in the French Regions after the Hamon and NOTRé Laws

France has faced for several decades, with the rising of new public management, profound transformations in the ways of implementing its collective action. Two recently adopted laws are likely to play a major role in this regard by encouraging the development of partnerships between the public sector and social and solidarity economy organizations (PSSEOs). The Hamon law of 2014 did bring recognition and national legitimacy to the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) while advocating for the latter a change of scale; the NOTRé law of 2015 redefines the competences and attributions of the different levels of public government by strengthening the role of the regions in the implementation of territorial development strategies. Regional public authorities are thus increasingly relying on social and solidarity economy organizations (SSEOs) to carry out collective action. The aim of this contribution is to analyze the differentiated effects that may result from recent reforms. We carried out an empirical study with a view to interregional comparison. We interviewed the representatives of large structures (public and SSE) in two regions (Grand-Est and Normandy) to understand similarities and differences of approaches on four topics: two of them refer to the characteristics and effects of the Hamon law (economic perspective; the citizen dimension in the SSE); two others to the NOTRé law (the influence of actors in the co-construction of regional public action; its territorial anchoring). Our textual analysis thus shows that the current territorial and partnership dynamics give rise to a differentiation in France of regional policies and PSSEPs. These results could lead to the emergence of different regional models, cause a yardstick competition between these models, and have a strong influence in future on the process of creative destruction of collective action.