Meaning and Significance of the Principles of Co-operation

1. Meaning and Significance of the Principles of Co-operation

Principles of co-operation are the broad, universally accepted guidelines that shape the way a co-operative society is formed, organised and run. They are the rules by which a co-operative puts its underlying values into everyday practice. Just as a game needs rules so that all players know how it is to be played, a co-operative needs principles so that members, managers and outsiders all know what a genuine co-operative stands for and how it must conduct itself.

These principles were developed by the co-operative movement itself, out of long practical experience, and are today framed and maintained by the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA), the world body of co-operatives. The ICA reviewed and re-stated them in its 1995 statement so that they would suit modern conditions while keeping the original spirit intact. Because the ICA is accepted worldwide, its seven principles serve as a common standard for co-operatives in every country.

Nature of the principles:

• Universal — they apply to every type of co-operative (credit, consumer, housing, marketing, and so on) in every country.
• Flexible, not rigid — they are guidelines to be applied sensibly according to local conditions, not a fixed law to be blindly obeyed.
• Inter-related — the seven principles support one another; weakening one (say, democratic control) tends to weaken the others too.
• Value-based — they grow out of, and protect, the co-operative values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity.

Why the principles matter:

• They preserve the co-operative character of a society and stop it from drifting into a purely profit-driven business run for the benefit of a few. …