Democratic Cooperative Governance: Role Ambiguity, Pseudo-Democracy and Tacit Acceptance?

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to discuss the features and challenges of participatory, people-centered, and democratic cooperative governance through examining both members councils’ and supervisory boards’ understandings of the roles, tasks, and responsibilities of various governing bodies via a qualitative case study of a large Finnish consumer cooperative. The data show that the overall structure and duties of the governing bodies are not clearly understood. Also, the data present a view of the cooperative as a very hierarchical organization in which real power is exercised by very few. Members councils are perceived as being quite passive and their decision-making power is mainly seen as a rhetoric mantra, which does not support the view of the cooperative as a truly democratic organization. The supervisory board in turn doesn’t seem to understand their supervisory duty, which concentrates power in the board of directors and management and weakens the possibility of the emergence of different perspectives in governance. Democracy was collectively highlighted as the central value related to cooperatives. However, democracy was interpreted merely through its electoral conception whereas the quality of democracy is ignored. Thus, the governance system neither actualizes its full potential nor meets the original ideas forming the co-op ideal.