Who counts in co-operatives, and how? In this paper empirical results are presented from recent quantitative and qualitative studies on Belgian co-operatives in which questions about who counts in co-operatives and how were treated (Develtere, Meireman & Raymaekers, 2005; Dujardin, Mertens & Van...

The paper reveals a relevant dimension of social economy in Europe: cooperatives. Like many other types of enterprise, cooperatives face the challenge of finding the most efficient means to distribute insufficient resources. But contrasting most other enterprises, cooperatives also need to seek...

This paper investigates the motivation behind economic behaviour in the cooperative credit movement, and some of the inherent problems. In particular, the following hypotheses are analysed: the possibility of maintaining the principles of reciprocity and participation in the case of rapid growth...

Gewerkschaften werden oft von Liberalen und Libertären kritisiert. Dabei sind sie Ausdruck grundlegender Freiheitsrechte, insbesondere der Vereinigungsfreiheit. Auch das Streikrecht ist innerhalb gewisser Grenzen ein legitimes Freiheitsrecht. Eine freie Gesellschaft ist mehr als Marktwirtschaft...

The paper argues that the limited company can be looked upon as a transitional corporate form in-between the capitalistic mode of production and a new mode of production, as a springboard for the creation of a – fully socialist – system of cooperative firms. An additional aim of this paper...

In this paper, we examine major trends and potential for cooperatives in the context of four prominent socio-economic issues: the lack of jobs, economic and social inequality, educational mobility, and the priority need for innovations. We present recent data on the amount and types of job...

A frequent characteristic of worker cooperatives is the tendency to reinvest a large share of profits into asset locks: a common fund, indivisible and not appropriable by members, neither upon quitting, nor at the end of the firms life. To explain this behaviour, I introduce the hypothesis that...

“El presente estudio tiene como objetivo evaluar el papel de las cooperativas en Colombia desde el punto de vista económico y social. Se busca dimensionar el aporte socio-económico del cooperativismo, identificar los determinantes del sector y evaluar los aspectos que constituyen sus...

This paper analyses the repercussions of the institutional aspects of co-operatives in the decision making process, in arranging the incentive system for members, and discretionary behaviour among management. From a comparative analysis of capitalistic companies, the paper studies the nature of...

The publication of the passive learning model of Jovanovic [Jovanic, B., "Selection and the Evolution of Industry," Econometrica, 1982, 60, 649-670.] initiated a resurgence of interest in firm growth and survival processes. Yet all the recent work has focused on the profit maximizing firm,...