Co-operatives: An investment in democracy and economic growth

This article seeks to examine the co-operative corporation model of social economic enterprise as a means of addressing the tide of global economic instability and social capital dissociation, and as a vehicle for organized labour to effect real socio-economic changes. Mondragon instantiates what many economists consider to be a contradiction within the market and reshaped our understanding of the global economic possibilities for the social economy as a complex business model rather than the traditional third tier service economy with which it had been associated (MacLeod 1997). The co-operative community development model has the ability to effect community engagement which has resulted in significant social and economic impacts in devastated regions and has contributed to labour's ability to effect socioeconomic change.