Abstract
In order to become a viable alternative, cooperatives must be recognized as a clearly distinct form of enterprise, a clarity that seems to be lacking and decreasing. One of the greatest threats to cooperatives—the legal models and the conceptual essence—is becoming very similar to capital-based companies. The process, which Henry refers to as ‘companization,’ has become so common that its opponents are often referred to as detached purists. This ‘companization’ process is a political act, as the proponents of capitalism argue ‘there is no alternative.’ The crisis of trust that surfaced with COVID-19 relates to both the political and the economic arenas, and particularly to the cooperation between untrusted governments and corporations. This extreme manifestation of a long-time democratic deficiency has a lot to do with the exclusion of democracy from the economic arena, the lack of transparency and the notion that there is nothing capital-based companies will not do in order to maximize profits. This time of crisis might become an opportunity to present vital economic alternatives—not utopian ideas, but long-time operating, clear and distinct forms of people-based democratic organizational and incorporation models, which do not follow the logic and practice of the capital-based company and can offer a viable economic-democratic option for enterprises as well as for a political-economic system.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Title of host publication | Perspectives on Cooperative Law |
Subtitle of host publication | Festschrift In Honour of Professor Hagen Henry |
Publisher | Springer Nature |
Pages | 173-182 |
Number of pages | 10 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9789811919916 |
ISBN (Print) | 9789811919909 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Jan 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Social Sciences