This study searches the welfare function of social economy and examines whether it can be the alternative of the welfare state or not. To do this, we set up 5 common variables of social economy and the welfare state, and compared them for finding their similarities and differences. Common variables compose of background, domain, pursuing value, welfare realization method, and welfare delivery system. The results show that even though they are different among each other, social economy performs welfare functions like the welfare state, but the role of it should be identified as a complementary one instead of the welfare state.