Co-operative Enterprise in Comparative Perspective: Exceptionally Un-American?

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Jason S. Spicer (Assistant Professor, Assistant Professor, Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, Baruch College, City University of New York)

Co-operative Enterprise in Comparative Perspective

Exceptionally Un-American?

Jason S. Spicer (Assistant Professor, Assistant Professor, Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, Baruch College, City University of New York)

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English

Oxford University Press Inc
23 September 2024

Institutions & learned societies: general; Social issues & processes; Social theory; Sociology: work & labour

Co-operative enterprises, which are democratically owned and governed by their workers, customers, or suppliers, have long captured the imagination of activists and social scientists alike. In centering economic democracy and a collectivist-democratic logic, and in embodying a ""third way"" alternative to profit-maximizing corporations and state-owned enterprises, co-operatives offer the promise of a more sustainable and equitable economy.

Despite extensive study of co-operatives' real and imagined benefits, we know little about the conditions under which they achieve the lasting scale needed to be a viable alternative and transform the economy. Under what conditions can co-operatives achieve such scale?

And are such conditions present in the United States, where, despite repeated organizing efforts, co-operatives remain exceptionally rare at scale? Through a rigorous comparative-historical analysis of co-operative enterprises in different national contexts, this book seeks to answer these questions. Deploying two different variants of the new institutionalism, Spicer treats the United States as a central case of comparative failure, as contrasted to three rich democracies where the co-operative business model has been more successful: Finland, France, and New Zealand.

The cause of co-operatives' comparative weakness in the United States is identified as reflecting the joint effect of economic liberalism and structural racism. Only in the United States did the co-operative face, in its initial development, two well-entrenched incumbents operating with competing ownership models: the investor-owned firm and the race-based chattel slavery system of ownership of people. Proponents of these two models acted to deprive the co-operative movement of resources, and undermined the solidarity at the co-operative business model's heart, splintering the American co-operative movement in the process. In subsequent waves of co-operative organizing, advocates have never fully succeeded in overcoming these initial obstacles, resulting in a different outcome in the United States, consistent with broader conceptions of the United States as a perennial outlier (i.e., """"American exceptionalism""""). In contrast, in the successful cases, advocates were better able to leverage resources to animate a national solidarity and procure the necessary political and economic resources to achieve scale.

By: Jason S. Spicer (Assistant Professor Assistant Professor Marxe School of Public and International Affairs Baruch College City University of New York)
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 242mm, Width: 164mm, Spine: 26mm
Weight: 594g
ISBN: 9780197665077
ISBN 10: 0197665071
Pages: 328
Publication Date: 23 September 2024
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jason Spicer is an Assistant Professor in the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at CUNY Baruch College, where he focuses on social and community entrepreneurship. Prior to joining CUNY, he spent five years on the faculty of the University of Toronto (St. George), where he oversaw the economic development concentration in the graduate urban planning program. He holds a PhD in Political Economy from MIT. He has published many articles on co-operatives and related alternative enterprise forms in academic journals across the social sciences.