Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Cooperatives And The Question Of Democracy, Mark J. Kaswan

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Democracy is generally considered to be a core element of cooperatives. However, other than elected boards of directors, it appears to play little part in either the governance or operations of most cooperatives. Two challenges to democracy are identified. One is the idea that cooperatives will tend to lose their democratic character over time. The other is that many cooperatives are founded primarily for economic reasons, and democracy is a second-order concern. The paper explores the question of how important democracy is to cooperatives, identifying warning signs and encouraging cooperatives to take a more active approach to promote participation. Democracy …