The scarcity of worker cooperatives in the USAenquiring into possible causes

  1. Arana Landin, Sofia 1
  1. 1 Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea
    info

    Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea

    Lejona, España

    ROR https://ror.org/000xsnr85

Revista:
CIRIEC - España. Revista de economía pública, social y cooperativa

ISSN: 0213-8093

Año de publicación: 2018

Número: 92

Páginas: 39-60

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.7203/CIRIEC-E.92.10629 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso abierto editor

Otras publicaciones en: CIRIEC - España. Revista de economía pública, social y cooperativa

Resumen

Even though the access of workers to capital has been promoted in some countries for over centuries, Governments and public bodies have started to promote it worldwide, as in previous occasions, more particularly as an aftermath of the Great Recession, usually in the form of worker cooperatives.However, workers’ access to capital in the USA in the form of worker cooperatives is still surprisingly rare. We cannot find any recent public policies at a federal level in order to promote them and the old ones that exist remain mostly obsolete and unknown. Only at a state and local level, we find in the latest years a series of actions directed to achieve this goal, as in the case of New York City, where there is an important budget to promote the access of workers to capital more particularly after 2012 and, among others, worker cooperatives are being formed.The purpose of this paper is to enquire about the possible causes of the scarce number of worker cooperatives in the USA as the only way of offering solutions comes from understanding the causes.

Referencias bibliográficas

  • ABELL, H. (2014): “Worker cooperative: pathways to scale”, The Democracy collaborative.
  • ALLEMAND, S. (2010): « L’économie sociale et solidaire à l’heure de l’entrepreneuriat social ». In: Economie sociale et solidaire – Nouvelles trajectoires d’innovations, sous la direction de Boutillier, S. et Allemand, S., L’Harmattan – Marchés & Organisations, 93-105.
  • ALPEROVITZ, G. (2017): “Principles of a pluralistic Commonwealth”, The Democracy Collaborative.
  • ARNOLD, N.S. (1987): “Further Thoughts on the Degeneration of Market Socialism: A Reply to Schweickart and Phil, G.K. DOW (2003) in Governing the Firm”, Workers control in theory and in practice.
  • ARTZ, G.M. & KIM, Y. (2011): “Business Ownership by workers: are worker cooperatives a viable option?”, Iowa-state University Working Papers, Working Paper 11020, n 11.
  • BAKER, M. (2008): “Arguments against CSR redoubled”, Business Respect, issue 139.
  • BAKER, M. (2008): “Can you have social responsibility without ethics?”, Business Respect, issue 132.
  • BIRCHALL, J. (2005): Co-operative principles ten years on, ICA.
  • CECOP (2012): Social Cooperatives and Social and Participative Enterprises (CECOP-CICOPA), Brussels.
  • CHAVES, R. (2008): “Public policies and Social Economy in Spain and Europe”, CIRIEC-España, Revista de Economía Pública, Social y Cooperativa, 62, Special Issue, 35-60.
  • COMMONS, J.R. (1918): History of labor in the United States, New York.
  • ELLERMAN, D. (1984): Workers’cooperatives: the question of legal structure in Worker cooperatives in America, University of California press, Los Angeles.
  • ELLERMAN, D. & PITEGOFF, P. (1983): “The democratic Corporation: the New worker Cooperative Statute in Massachusetts”, New York University Review of Law and social change, vol. IX, n. 3.
  • GOWRI J.K. (2013): ”Worker Cooperative Creation as Progressive Lawyering? Moving Beyond the One-Person, One-Vote Floor”, Berkeley J.Emp. & Lab., L, 34.
  • HANSMANN, H. (1996): The Ownership of Enterprise, Belknap press, New York.
  • HUERTAS NOBLE, C. (2016): “Worker-owned and unionized worker-owned cooperatives: two tools to address income inequality”, Clinical Law Review, vol. 22, n 2.
  • KENNELLY, J.J. & ODEKON, M. (2016): “Worker Cooperatives in the United States”, Redux, Labor and Society, vol.19, issue 2.
  • KILPATRICK, D. (2000): Definition of Public policy and the law, National Violence Against Women Prevention Centre, web page.
  • KRUSE, D., FREEMAN, R. & BLASI, J. (2010): Shared capitalism at Work: Employee ownership, profit and gain sharing, and broad-based stock options, Chicago, Univ. of Chicago Press.
  • KURTULUS F.A. & KRUSE, D.L. (2017): How Did Employee Ownership Firms Weather the Last Two Recessions?, Employee Ownership, Employment Stability and Firm survival: 1999-2011, Upjohn Institute, Michigan.
  • MILL, J.S. (1848): Principles of Political Economy with Some of their applications to Social Philosophy, W.J. Ashley ed., Longmans, Green & Co. 9th ed. new ed. reprt. 1915.
  • MONZÓN, J.L. & CHAVES, R. (2008): “The European Social Economy: concept and dimensions of the third sector”, Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, vol. 79, issue 3-4.
  • MURRAY, C. (2011): “Co-op Survival Rates in British Columbia”. In: The Summary of Report by the Ministry of Economic Development, Innovation and Export in Quebec: Survival Rate of Cooperatives in Quebec.
  • NESS, I. (2013): Worker cooperatives in the United States: A historical perspective and Contemporary Assessment, at http://www.workerscontrol.net/authors/worker-cooperativesunited-states-historical-perspective-and-contemporary-assessment.
  • NESS, I. (2011): Ours to master and to own: workers control from the commune to present, Azzelini, New York.
  • OLSEN, E.K. (2013): “The Relative Survival of Worker Cooperatives and Barriers to Their Creation”. In: Douglas Kruse (ed.), Sharing Ownership, Profits, and Decision-Making in the 21st Century (Advances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory & Labor-Managed Firms), Volume 14, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 83-107.
  • OLSON, M. (1971): “The Logic of Collective Action”. In: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups, Harvard University Press, Masachusetts.
  • PAVLOSKAYA, M. and others (2016): On their NYC Worker Cooperatives Survey for the year 2016.
  • ROTHSCHILD, J. (2009): “Workers’ Cooperative and Social Enterprise: A forgotten route to Social Equity and Democracy”, Am Behavioral Scientist, 52, 1023-1025.
  • SCHWEICKART, D. (1996): Against Capitalism, Ed. Westview Pr., Chicago.
  • SCHWEICKART, D. (2002): After Capitalism (New Critical Theory),Westview Pr., Chicago.
  • TAYLOR, R. (1971): “The taxation of cooperatives: some economic Implications”, Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol 19, issue 2.
  • VAILLANCOURT, Y. (2009): “Social economy in the co-construction of public policy”, Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, vol. 80, issue 2.
  • VANEK, J. (1975): Self-Management: Economic Liberation of Man, Penguin, Harmondsworth.
  • WHYTE, W.F. & WHYTE, K.K. (1988): Making Mondragon: The Growth and Dynamics of the Worker Cooperative Complex, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University-ILR Press.
  • WOLF, R. (2005): “Definitions of public policy analysis: resources for promoting objectivity and balance in consolidated democracies”, Policy Studies Journal, vol. 33, issue 2.