Enabling Policy Environments for Co-operative Development: A Comparative Experience

Abstract

This paper argues that public policy and legislation have significant influence in fostering or hindering co-operative development. Factors that influence co-operative development, such as financial mechanisms, technical assistance, and sector support infrastructure, are often treated separately in the literature without sufficiently focusing on the importance and role of public policy and legislation to establish the necessary mechanisms to effectively promote co-operative development. This paper argues that while the aforementioned factors are relevant, without grounding in a comprehensive public policy strategy, they paint only a partial picture of the co-operative development phenomenon. Public policy can create all the formerly mentioned mechanisms to develop co-operative organizations more effectively. By learning from Canadian and international co-operative experiences, this paper offers insights into enabling co-operative policy mechanisms that can benefit the Canadian social economy sector.