Introduction: the cooperative firm as an alternative to the capital-owned business enterprise

Abstract

The precondition for depriving capital of its power is allowing workers to manage firms (especially medium and large enterprises) on their own, viz. creating a system of cooperatives or democratically managed enterprises. As used in this book, the terms self-managed firm and producer cooperative are synonymous with the term democratically managed enterprise because a system composed of firms of this kind realises workplace democracy to the full. Although cooperatives may come in a variety of different organisational models, they have in common one main characteristic: the application of the cardinal rule of democracy dictating that decision powers are to be solely and entirely vested in the members (or partners) of the firm in line with the ‘one head one vote’ criterion. Other organisational characteristics are optional and should be selected with an eye to the need to ensure efficiency – as will be explained further on. This introduction offers a broad outline of the principal organisational characteristics of our cooperative enterprises.