Co-operative Federalism - Co-operative Federalism Versus Co-operative Individualism

Co-operative Federalism Versus Co-operative Individualism

Cooperative federalism has been one side in the historical debate in Co-operative economics between co-operative federalism and cooperative Individualism. In an Owenite Village of Co-operation or a commune, the residents would be both the producers and consumers of its products. However, for a cooperative, the producers and consumers of its products become two different groups of people, and thus, there are two different sets of people who could be defined as its 'users'. As a result, we can define two different modes of cooperative organisation: consumers' cooperatives, in which the consumers of a cooperatives goods and services are defined as its users (including food cooperatives, credit unions, etc.), and producer cooperatives, in which the producers of a co-operative's goods and services are defined as its users (which includes worker cooperatives, agricultural producer cooperatives, for example), as advocated by cooperative individualism.

In this debate, cooperative federalists are those who support consumers' cooperatives, and those who favor producers co-operatives have been pejoratively labelled ‘individualist' cooperativists by the federalists.