Why People Dont Cooperate? A Study of Traditional Forms of Cooperation with Implications for Modern Organizations

A question which has remained under explored in Research on the Cooperatives and Rural Development is whether the Western European Models of organizing cooperatives further based on Agri-business concept as it evolved at Harvard will be able to invoke cooperation amongst the poor and between the poor and not so poor in developing agrarian societies. We have first defined the image of development which should provide the back-drop for any discussion on Rural Development. After making our assumptions explicit, we have dealt with basically two issues: i) What are the basic features of traditional cooperation vis-a-vis modern cooperatives? The discussion would be illustrated with some cases in socio-ecological perspective. ii) How does one conceptualize the role of resources, risks, and skills in particularly marginal regions in invoking cooperation amongst small farmers and landless labourers? The discussion on NDDB’s model of organizing cooperatives of milk producers provides a socio-ecological critique of strategies of replication often applied in developmental programmes. In the last part, a brief discussion on theory of Cooperation has been organized around the concept of Olsen’s logic of collective action. Besides, recent contribution on the issue of pooling and distribution, free-riders, common properties externalities and altruism and cooperation have also been discussed. It is hoped that the study will provide the perspective for the emergence of more indigenous models of cooperative organizations which will be able to invoke cooperation amongst the poor and as well as between poor and the institutions designed ostensibly to serve them.