Co-operatives and public policy: A scoping review

Abstract

We sketch a first-ever map of the scholarly literature on co-operatives and public policy from a selection of English-language studies published since 2000 using a scoping review methodology. We find that while co-operatives are often framed as solutions to societal problems, few scholars draw on formal public policy theories. We also observe that scholars concern themselves largely with a small set of jurisdictions (the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom and Canada) but ignore places like New Zealand that are also English-speaking and have sizeable co-operative sectors. We observe that although scholars have tended to focus on a relatively narrow set of policy-relevant areas of co-operative activity (e.g., agriculture, credit and housing), we also witness the emergence of a growing literature on energy co-operatives. Finally, we identify a preponderance of scholarship anchored in traditional governance frameworks (e.g., principal-agent and stakeholder theories) but also an emergent and growing scholarship that applies Ostrom's common-pool resource framing to the study of co-operatives and public policy. Our findings suggest that the study of co-operatives and public policy is a rich area for further investigation, if only to inform policymakers and international agencies who, with or without supporting scholarship, continue to view co-operatives as tools of public policy.