Cooperatives and the Commodity Political Agenda: A Political Economy Approach

Abstract

Historically, major agricultural cooperatives in Canada have been intimately involved in commodity policy issues. Large cooperatives were created because farmers were upset about the perceived lack of competition in buying farm inputs or selling farm outputs. Often, the resulting cooperative was the organization farmers saw as the logical organization to represent their view of commodity policy or competition policy. As cooperatives grew and diversified, the ability to represent their members coherently across policy issues was hampered. For processing cooperatives in the supply‐managed sector, the requirement that the cooperative be the political arm of industry, process product, and provide maximum returns to producer members made for a complicated objective function. This paper focuses on the twin objectives of providing efficient member services and performing political lobbying in a public choice framework. The results are illustrated by the recent history of a supply‐managed further‐processing cooperative and a diversified grain cooperative.

Developing a conceptual framework for the co-operative and mutual enterprise business model

“…Spear (2000) identifies at least six reasons why the CME business model is a potentially valuable tool for regional economic development. First, the creation of a CME is an effective response when government SOE, or private sector IOF enterprises, are unable or unwilling to provide goods and services (Goddard, Boxall, & Lerohl, 2002; Heriot & Campbell, 2006; Birch & Whittam, 2008; Yadoo & Cruickshank, 2010; van Oorschot, de Hoog, van der Steen, & van Twist, 2013). Second, due to their democratic governance and mutual ownership, they engender greater community trust than IOFs (Ole Borgen, 2001; Hansen, Morrow, & Batista, 2002; McClintock-Stoel & Sternquist, 2004; James & Sykuta, 2005; Rice & Lavoie, 2005; Österberg & Nilsson, 2009; Pesämma et al, 2013; Sabatini, Modena, & Tortia, 2014; Verhees, Sergaki, & Van Dijk, 2015).…”

The “People” Factor in Cooperatives: An Analysis of Members' Attitudes and Behavior

“…In addition, according to Goddard et al (2002) a cooperative may also fail if its business focus takes a secondary role to its political focus, such as lobbying. In addition, according to Goddard et al (2002) a cooperative may also fail if its business focus takes a secondary role to its political focus, such as lobbying.…”

“…There may be several reasons why cooperatives fail (or succeed), and studies in the economic and management literature typically attribute such failure (or success) to economic and business factors (e.g., cost management, strategic alliance, better managerial abilities, etc.). In addition, according to Goddard et al (2002) a cooperative may also fail if its business focus takes a secondary role to its political focus, such as lobbying. Cooperative literature has also shown that ignoring members' needs and satisfaction to pursue only management goals may be shortsighted.…”

De la cooperativa agroalimentaria a la "learning netchain". Hacia un planteamiento teorico interorganizativo e interpersonal

“…Una característica clave de las cooperativas productoras es su rol como coordinadoras de las supply chain network (Goddard et al, 2002) o netchain. Una netchain está completamente coordinada cuando todas las decisiones están alineadas para acoplarse a los objetivos del sistema global (Sahin y Robinson, 2002).…”