Saluting Democratic Capitalism

By Lee Egerstrom, Economic Development Fellow, October 19, 2011 at 12:30 pm

Minnesota is a great state because our early business leaders, and even policymakers, cooperated.

We realized that pooling talents and resources helped overcome market imperfections and our distance from eastern population centers. Co-ops made doing business more efficient for each entrepreneur.

As a result, Minnesota has become the most cooperatively organized state in the country, with more than 1,000 co-ops headquartered here, pumping about $34 billion into local economies and employing tens-of-thousands.

Next week we’ll celebrate that tradition as cooperative leaders meet in the Twin Cities for their annual meeting.

This year is especially timely. The United Nations has declared 2012 as the “Year of Cooperatives” to encourage governments and non-government organizations (NGOs) to promote economic development through cooperative business models.

Monday’s program at Dunwoody Institute in Minneapolis features author and California co-op developer David Thompson, who wrote Weavers of Dreams: Founders of the Modern Co-operative Movement.

The book traces the formation of Rochdale (England) Pioneers co-op, a consumer cooperative for textile workers that established a set of principles still in worldwide use. It also became the model for consumer cooperatives, such as food and healthcare co-ops.

Minnesota’s more common co-op, the producer or farm-related co-op, actually traces its origins back to Enlightenment Era developments in Denmark and other European countries.

All, however, share the English “weavers’ dreams” in principles and in desire to help members overcome market failures and market imperfections.

More Rochdale Pioneers are needed now just as they were in the 1840s.

Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: Business Growth  Co-ops