Degeneration and development of worker cooperatives - selected aspects

Abstract

Problems of degeneration and planning horizon have been analysed very widely and attempted to be solved through numerous empirical investigations. The investigations in cooperatives and democracy in a workplace also tended to indicate circumstances that accelerate and precipitate degeneration or, alternatively, the internal and external conditions which can help sustain democracy as well as counteract processes transforming cooperatives info typical private enterprises. There are many historical examples confirming that the possibility of sustaining genuinely democratic forms of cooperative organizations through their growth and pressure for greater efficiency is very limited and usually fails. This can be seen among other forms of employee ownership as well, though the post-socialist economies show high incidence of employee ownership. However, the available evidence suggests that the number of employee-owned firms (especially - cooperatives) is declining quite rapidly because of the degeneration process. On the other hand, there are same examples evidencing that degeneration is not inevitable as cooperatives grow. In the economic reality we can observe that various cooperatives face different combinations of conditions and environments that they can interpret, as well as to react to in different ways. Therefore, economic growth and outstanding economic results of cooperatives do not have to be these parameters and factors that are perceived as causing degeneration. Different kinds of empirical investigations show that the opposite is possible, namely, emergence of the regeneration processes that open new possibilities of supporting democratic forms of management in cooperatives.