We examine the proposition that, in co-operatives, the need for democracy must clash with efficiency demands. To shed light on diverse issues surrounding this claim we distinguish different forms of co-operatives and identify different meanings of democratic governance and forms of economies of...

This article presents a review on the economics literature on co-operatives from the point of view of economic methodology. I compare two different approaches, the neoclassical approach and the new institutional approach. The former approach is exemplified by Jaroslav Vanek's (1970) The General...