Human development and economic democracy: which contributions of co-operatives in the current global crisis, the case of Legacoop

Abstract

The paper deals with the role of co-operatives in the current global crises, analyzing the issue from a human development perspective. As Amartya Sen pointed out in the Conference dedicated to Co-operative Economics and organized by Legacoop in January 2009, the current crisis is characterized by the lack of trust and cooperation. Because of that, the first contribution of co-operative movement can be seen in its principles and values and in the attitude of co-operators to work together creating a trusty environment. It is not by chance that the current financial crisis, characterized by the massive public bailout of private, investor-owned banks worldwide, has underlined the virtues of a customer-owned cooperative banking system. The paper states that the current crises is demonstrating the value of workers’ participation to decision-making processes of co-operative enterprises as a response to a crisis basically generated by a speculative approach to economic and financial system. It considers that probably economic democracy will not generate a utopian new man, as also Dahl pointed out in mid-1980s, but it might activate a process for rethinking the global economic development framework.