A Few Reflections on the Reasons Why Cooperative Firms Have Failed to Gain a Firm Foothold
Author(s)
Bruno Jossa*
ABSTRACT
After the inception of the cooperative movement in the mid-19th century, it was widely held that capitalistic businesses would soon be replaced by a system of worker-controlled firms and a wealth of policy proposals called for a major impulse to cooperation in later years also. But cooperation has not met with the hoped-for success. How do we account for this? To our day, employee management specialists have been unable to provide a satisfactory explanation for the fact that the policy proposal to introduce democratic firm control still carries little consensus despite the collapse of the Soviet model of communism. In this paper, we give some answers to the question and emphasise the idea that progress in the direction of a generalised system of cooperative firms would amount to a considerable improvement over capitalism, but will hardly be made without the effective contribution of intellectuals and political parties.
After the inception of the cooperative movement in the mid-19th century, it was widely held that capitalistic businesses would soon be replaced by a system of worker-controlled firms and a wealth of policy proposals called for a major impulse to cooperation in later years also. But cooperation has not met with the hoped-for success. How do we account for this? To our day, employee management specialists have been unable to provide a satisfactory explanation for the fact that the policy proposal to introduce democratic firm control still carries little consensus despite the collapse of the Soviet model of communism. In this paper, we give some answers to the question and emphasise the idea that progress in the direction of a generalised system of cooperative firms would amount to a considerable improvement over capitalism, but will hardly be made without the effective contribution of intellectuals and political parties.
Cite this paper
Jossa, B. (2015) A Few Reflections on the Reasons Why Cooperative Firms Have Failed to Gain a Firm Foothold. Open Journal of Business and Management, 3, 265-280. doi: 10.4236/ojbm.2015.33027.
Jossa, B. (2015) A Few Reflections on the Reasons Why Cooperative Firms Have Failed to Gain a Firm Foothold. Open Journal of Business and Management, 3, 265-280. doi: 10.4236/ojbm.2015.33027.
References
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[1] Oakeshott, R. (1978) The Case for Workers’ Co-ops. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London. [2] Cornforth, C., Thomas, A., Lewis, J. and Spear, R. (1988) Developing Successful Worker Cooperatives. Sage, London. [3] Ellerman, D.P. (1990) The Democratic Worker-Owned Firm. Unwin Hyman, Boston. [4] Bardhan, P. and Roemer, J.E., Eds. (1993) Market Socialism: The Current Debate. Oxford Economic Press, New York. [5] Jossa, B. (2005) La teoria economica delle cooperative di produzione e la possibile fine del capitalismo. Giappichelli, Turin. [6] Jossa, B. (2012) Cooperative Firms as a New Production Mode. Review of Political Economy, 24, 399-416.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09538259.2012.701915 [7] Mill, J.S. (1871) Principi di economia politica. III Edit., Ital. transl. UTET, Turin, 1953. [8] Walras, L. (1990) Etudes d’économie social, Oeuvres économique complètes. Vol. IX, Econonica, Paris. [9] Gibson-Graham, J.K. (2003) Enabling Ethical Economies: Cooperativism and Class. Critical Sociology, 29, 123-161. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156916303769155788 [10] Nozick, R. (1974) Anarchy, State and Utopia. Basil Blackwell, Oxford. [11] Jensen, M.C. and Meckling, W.J. (1979) Rights and Production Functions: An Applications to Labor-Managed Firms and Codetermination. The Journal of Business, 52, 469-506.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/296060 [12] Williamson, O.E. (1985) The Economic Institutions of Capitalism. Free Press, New York. [13] Mandel, E. (1973) The Debate on Workers’ Control. In: Hunnius, G., Garson, G.D. and Case, J., Eds., Workers’ Control, Vintage Books, New York. [14] Vanek, J. (1969) Decentralization under Workers’ Management: A Theoretical Appraisal. The American Economic Review, 59, 1006-1014. [15] Vanek, J. (1970) The General Theory of Labor-Managed Market Economies. Cornell University Press, Ithaca. [16] Horvat, B. (1975) On the Theory of the Labor-Managed Firm. Reprinted in: Prychitko, D.L. and Vanek, J., Eds. (1996) Producer Cooperatives and Labor-Managed Systems. E. Elgar, Cheltenham. [17] Jossa, B. and Cuomo, G. (1997) The Economic Theory of Socialism and the Labour-managed Firm. E. Elgar, Cheltenham. [18] Jossa, B. (2010) A Few Advantages of Cooperative Firms. Studi Economici, 65. [19] Jossa, B. (2010) Esiste un’alternativa al capitalismo? Manifestolibri, Rome. [20] Cole, G.C.H. (1953) Attempts at General Union. Macmillan, London. [21] Hansmann, H. (1996) The Ownership of Enterprise. Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press, Cambridge. [22] Hamilton, D. (1999) Evolutionary Economics: A Study of Change in Economic Thought. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick. [23] Hodgson, G.M. (2003) Darwinism and Institutional Economics. Journal of Economic Issues, 37, 85-97. [24] De Gregory, T.R. (2003) Muck and Magic or Change and Progress: Vitalism versus Hamiltonian Matter-of-Fact Knowledge. Journal of Economic Issues, 37, 17-33. [25] Veblen, T.B. (1964) What Veblen Thought. August M. Kelley, New York. [26] Putterman, L. (1990) Division of Labor and Welfare: An Introduction to Economic Systems. Oxford University Press, Oxford. [27] Horvat, B. (2000) Social Ownership. 10th Conference of IAFEP, Trient, 6-8 July 2000. [28] Hodgson, G.M. (1999) Economics and Utopia. Routledge, London. [29] Miller, E.S. (2003) Evolution and Stasis: The Institutional Economics of David Hamilton. Journal of Economic Issues, 37, 51-64. [30] Dugger, W.M. (2003) David Hamilton: A Radical’s Institutionalist. Journal of Economic Issues, 37, 65-73. [31] Gramsci, A. (1964) Il materialismo storico e la filosofia di Benedetto Croce. Einaudi, Turin. [32] Commons, J.R. (1924) Legal Foundations of Capitalism. Macmillan, New York. [33] Commons, J.R. (1934) Institutional Economics; Its Place in Political Economy. Macmillan, New York [34] Copeland, M.A. (1931) Economic Theory and the Natural Science Point of View. The American Economic Review, 21, 67-79. [35] Copeland, M.A. (1936) Common’s Institutionalism in Relation to the Problem of Social Evolution and Economic Planning. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 50, 333-346.
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