Liberalism and Co-operatives

Abstract

Abstract In examining New Zealand’s co-operatives, Chapter 5 exposes their uneasy relationship with economic liberalism. Here, co-operatives and a strong state enterprise sector sprang up together in an institutional void created by the nation’s distance and remoteness. Unlike in the United States, here the Knights of Labor were successful in creating a strong welfare state and a system of state-led socialism, which prevailed until the 1980s, when New Zealand became an LME in a late-breaking, left-led liberalization. New Zealand’s co-operatives then evolved to survive, by organizing to play a key role in managing the nation’s remoteness. They also serve a geopolitical role, rooting economic ownership and control domestically, reducing firms’ acquisition threat from larger neighbors. For comparative purposes, New Zealand is a critical case, one which shows that liberalism alone cannot explain why co-operatives have failed to achieve lasting prominence in the United States.