Politics, Philosophy & Economics10/17/2025·DOI·Read paper
Abstract
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There are several sectors of the economy in which cooperatives have flourished, competing successfully against standard business corporations. The best explanation for their success is that they provide superior benefits
<jats:italic toggle="yes">to their members</jats:italic>
. The question addressed by this paper is whether cooperatives
<jats:italic toggle="yes">also</jats:italic>
provide important benefits to society, such that non-members should prefer a cooperative economy to one dominated by business corporations. It has often been suggested that cooperatives are more virtuous because they are more democratic, less hierarchical, less anti-social and less apt to produce economic inequality. This paper evaluates these claims. The central challenge stems from the observation that cooperatives are not nearly as
<jats:italic toggle="yes">different</jats:italic>
from corporations as is commonly assumed.
</jats:p>
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