Cooperative Integration and diferentiation: from sections to groups of societies
Abstract
In confronting global market challenges, cooperatives have often focused on strategies of growth all the while preoccupied about the degree to which cooperatives principles can be maintained. This paper illustrates cooperative legislation´s role in shaping a legal environment in which cooperatives can both utilize necessary competitive strategies and maintain cooperative principles. Given the recent global financial crisis and the resulting lack of confidence in the shareholder model as the overriding paradigm, this task is even more relevant. We are critical of certain legislative provisions which do not achieve their stated goals and hide economic realities, encouraging cooperatives to «engineer» around such legislation or, alternatively, utilize cooperative legal mechanisms to find «refuge». Notwithstanding the apparent «pro» cooperative legal environment in Spain, in particular, its emphasis on integra tion, we argue that the legislation is inadequate: Strategies of integration are often utilized not out of the necessity to pursue a justified economic growth strategy but simply to allow for the subsistence of small cooperatives. In addition, such integration strategies overlook the need for flexibility and differentiation (i.e. mechanisms within cooperative administrations to deal with particularities and distinct objectives). In the case of cooperatives with justified growth needs, the legislation creates limitations for development and expansion within the cooperative framework, thus encouraging resort to ingenious methods to dodge such limitations or change form to an investor owned firm. I argue for a legislative regime that acknowledges the necessity of both growth and differentiation, allowing flexibility so that cooperatives of varying size can continue in a socially valuable framework. I refer to other legislative mechanisms from selected countries as examples of what can be done to complement and make coherent the stated intent of the Spanish legislation and the actual results.
Received: 20 June 2010
Accepted: 02 July 2010
Published online: 18 December 2015
Downloads
The authors, by submitting their manuscripts to the International Association of Cooperative Law Journal, accept the conditions listed below on copyright and undertake to comply with them.
1. Assignment of rights
The Publisher (University of Deusto) retains the copyright for this publication.
The authors, by submitting their manuscripts to the International Association of Cooperative Law Journal (BAIDC), without signing any document of assignment, grant to the Publisher (University of Deusto), royalty-free, the distribution, public communication, and reproduction rights of their work subject of publication in the International Association of Cooperative Law Journal (BAIDC), whichever the media may be, now known or developed in the future, for educational and scholarly purposes including the permission to include it in the databases where this Journal is indexed.
2. Authorship
The authors must be the sole creators of the work or legally acting on behalf of and with the full agreement of all the co-authors.
Authors warrant that no permissions or licences of any kind have been granted or will be granted that might infringe the rights granted to the Publisher (University of Deusto).
The authors assume the responsibility for obtaining all the necessary licences for the reproduction in their manuscripts of any text, material or illustration coming from another author, institution or publication.
3. Copyright and Code of conduct
Authors warrant that their work is original; has not been previously copyrighted or published in any form; is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; its submission and publication do not violate the Ethical Guidelines of the BAIDC and any codes (of conduct), laws or any rights of any third party.
4. Dissemination under Open Access regime
Upon its publication, the content of any Issue of International Association of Cooperative Law Journal (BAIDC), can be accessed, read, downloaded, copied, and distributed freely for non-commercial purposes, without prior permission from the Publisher or the author; provided the original work is properly cited and any changes to the original are clearly indicated.
5. Reuse of the article by the authors
Authors retain the right to present, display, distribute, develop, and republish their work, as long as they clearly indicate in the first footnote that the work was published in International Association of Cooperative Law Journal (BAIDC), for the first time, indicating the Issue number, year, pages, and DOI (if applicable).
Legal notice
Any use of the content of the paper against the rules set above in any medium or format, now known or developed in the future, requires prior written permission of the copyright holder.
The liabilities that may arise from complaints for publishing plagiarised articles are the sole responsibility of the authors.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
1.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
