The Peculiar History of ‘Member-owned’ Businesses in Developing Countries

Abstract

In general, and with some notable exceptions, throughout the 20th century the performance of member-owned businesses in developing countries has been disappointing. Enormous investments have been made in financial and technical aid from donor countries, and support from first colonial governments and then nationalist governments for co-operative development. Yet after a century of efforts there is not much to show for all of this. Why has there been such a gap between promise and performance? There is one simple explanation; they have not been allowed to be autonomous businesses, owned and controlled by their members. They have not been allowed to be co-operatives. How could such a basic mistake have been made by so many people for so long, and why are we only just seeing the emergence of an autonomous member-owned business sector? To answer these questions we need to appreciate the peculiar history of co-operatives in developing countries.