How Cooperative Firms Should be Organised from the Perspective of Today's Economic Theory

Economists engaged in the debate on worker management have often complained of vague background information on the institutional context each author refers to. Actually, some theorists have clarified that self-management should reverse the customary capital-labour relation, in terms that all such business activities as are traditionally run by capitalists should instead be run by workers, but this bare statement does not convey the exhaustive information required for a full comprehension of the institutional background against which their theoretical approaches are being developed. Accordingly, the aim of this article is to illustrate an organisation mode that might ensure the efficient running of self-managed firms. The author offers arguments in support of his contention that well-organised cooperative firms do not come in for most of the criticisms levelled against them in today's economic literature. Lastly, the paper criticises a well-known opinion by Jensen and Meckling.