Journal of Co-operative Studies, 50(3), 7-9

Abstract

The first paper in this special anniversary issue  is a contribution from E. P. Pritchard, a staff tutor in Government from the Department of Extra-Mural Studies (Birmingham) and focuses on democracy and competition in consumer co-operatives. In his opening remarks, he questions whether the principle of democratic control is practicable in a competitive environment. The premise of his argument, though, in this paper is that rather than “being a hindrance to effective competition, [democracy] should become the basis of the movement’s competitive strategy” (p. 7). In order to explicate this position, he starts with a view on the nature of democracy from the point of view of theconsumer. Yet, he suggests that surveys have shown that meeting the needs of the customer and customer satisfaction is not “a characteristic of the movement as a whole”. Furthermore, that there is a lack of distinctiveness between co-operative societies and independent retailers, and that rather than compete with others through imitation, there is a need to reclaim something distinctive: “the democratic principle of starting from the point of view of the member”.