"The New Mutuality": Utopia or refoundation? An analysis of the governance of the FNIM (Fédération nationale interprofessionnelle des mutuelles).

Summary The appearance in France in 1989 of a new federation of health mutuals claiming the title of "New Mutuality" raises the question of the foundations of the mutualism claimed by this newcomer, in the context of the economic upheaval which is leading to the emergence or re-emergence of the families of the social economy, which are also trying to distinguish themselves from the corporate governance models of the traditional economy. The creation of the Fédération nationale interprofessionnelle des mutuelles (FNIM) is therefore situated at the crossroads of this emergence, calling for a double questioning. Does the social economy constitute an alternative mode of organization and, within this family, in what way can the FNIM constitute a typical model of remarkable corporate governance? The thesis intends to analyze how "representative democracy", claimed by the founders, is the discriminating element between ordinary capitalist enterprises and other forms of mutuality. Starting from the main original sources of the social economy and the particularities of the influences, the analysis intends to demonstrate the reality of the authenticity of the claim of governance, in a comparison between the organizational realities of the entrepreneurial structures. The context of the 1990s and 2000s, which saw the alternation between left and right-wing governments, in the context of the questioning of the functioning of health insurance resulting from the "Thirty Glorious Years", the rather deregulatory directives of the European Commission and the hostility of the main other supporters of mutuality, shed light on the chosen governance scheme in various aspects, allowing us to verify the hypotheses of its tangible reality. The study is based entirely on the original archives of the FNIM from 1989 to 2005.