Institutional Forms of Action against social exclusion in Poland

Negative social phenomena such as poverty, unemployment disabilities and social pathologies have been building up. Governments in many countries search for the new methods of governing in order to confine the processes or at least, to reduce their growth.Solutions based on the establishment of non ? governmental organizations as institutions compensating for the weaknesses of the public and private sector have turned out insufficient. It has become necessary to create jobs for persons exposed to discrimination and unequal treatment in labour market. Extention of the non-profit sector to include business organizations that can create jobs for the disadvantaged with State?s suport in one of the implemented measures. Theory has labeled this enlarged sector as a social economy. In addition to clasic nonprofit institutions, other components of the sector are social enterprises, social cooperatives and Social Integration Centers.The paper aims to value such organizations activity in the Polish circumstances. They were formaly set up in Poland in 2003-2006.The analysis takes advantage of relevant law and statistical data concerning the activity of the established and operating organizations.The analysis will show the tendencies of development of these institutions in Poland. Besides it allows to limit their weak points and to asses their usefulness to the economy.