As of late I've become really interested in cooperatives, probably due to my very soon move to Austin and the fact that cooperatives seem to be normal in the city. I've always (with a six month exception) banked at a credit union, so I've always been down with exploring the cooperative concept. My interest of late though does not concern cooperatives that will provide me with services but instead revolves around worker's cooperatives.
The worker's cooperative seems to me like a great idea. Workers own the business and have a say in how the business operates. Great. While there are a few successful workers cooperatives (Mondragón, for instance), one area that there would be a significant hardship would be the raising of capital. If only workers own the company, then there can be no investment except through workers. The whole reason the incorporated joint-stock company model has been so successful (besides the incorporation part) is its ability to quickly raise capital by selling shares.
If such a model were introduced into workers cooperatives (what I would then call business cooperatives), what would be the result? Obviously, investors can't have the same sort of control in the cooperative as in a joint-stock company, but shouldn't they have some sort of control? Would each group elect half of the board? How would this dynamic affect the corporation's governance? Would this overly politicize the board?
Anyway, just some late night speculation.
