68 CHAPTER 5 Figure 5.1 Participatory decisionmaking


Density of cooperatives 70


All decisions


50 60


40


30 20 10


0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Percentage of decisions


Source: Authors’ calculations based on data from ESCS (2005). Note:


Density distribution of cooperatives is calculated according to the percentage of decisions taken by the general assembly.


Trade-Offs?


We now investigate the relationship among membership, governance, and per- formance. The results are reported in Table 5.5. The results do not account for likely endogeneity biases and should therefore be interpreted only as correla- tions. Nevertheless, they are useful in pinpointing eventual trade-offs relevant for future, and more robust, analysis.


In column (4), we also introduce proxies for the quality of cooperative management with two additional variables: share of committee members who can read and the maximum level of education among committee members. The estimated parameters for these proxies are not significant, but the param- eters estimated for our original set of variables remain robust. Overall, these results clearly show some trade-off between two objectives: (1) the extent to which a cooperative can open its membership (and allow more heterogeneity) or give voice to its members through participatory decisionmaking and (2) the extent to which it can maintain a minimum performance level in its economic activities.


70 80 90 100


General decisions only Technical decisions only


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103