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94-765: On February 23, 2018, ODEC named Marcus Harris as the organization's next president and CEO. Prior to joining ODEC, he served as executive vice president and CEO of Kansas Electric Power Cooperative. ODEC is an electric generation and transmission cooperative that provides wholesale power to its 11 member electric cooperatives in Virginia , Maryland , and Delaware . Through these member cooperatives, ODEC provided over 11 million megawatt hours of power to 1.4 million people in 2008. ODEC's member cooperatives primarily distribute power to rural, suburban, and recreation areas. ODEC's generating facilities make use of coal , fuel oil , natural gas , and nuclear energy . ODEC owns 11.6% of

188-400: A communist nation, the means of production of goods would be owned communally by all people of that nation; the original thinkers did not specify rules and regulations. Personal property is a type of property . In the common law systems personal property may also be called chattels . It is distinguished from real property , or real estate . In the civil law systems personal property

282-484: A cooperative (also co-operative or co-op, in German Wohnungsgenossenschaft – apartment co-operative, also " Wohnbaugenossenschaft " or simply " Baugenossenschaft ") which relies heavily on internal rules of operation instead of the legal framework governing condominium associations. These "co-ops", owning the building for the mutual benefit of its members, can ultimately perform most of the functions of

376-460: A not-for-profit cooperative (non-share capital co-op), and they underwrite their housing through paying subscriptions or rent. Housing cooperatives come in three basic equity structures Members of a building cooperative (in Britain known as a self-build housing cooperative) pool resources to build housing, normally using a high proportion of their own labor. When the building is finished, each member

470-451: A bet, receive it as a gift , inherit it, find it, receive it as damages , earn it by doing work or performing services, make it, or homestead it. One can transfer or lose ownership of property by selling it for money , exchanging it for other property, giving it as a gift, misplacing it, or having it stripped from one's ownership through legal means such as eviction , foreclosure , seizure , or taking . Ownership implies that

564-455: A collective framework. They open up new horizons for people who have ambition but who lack the skills or confidence needed to set off entirely on their own – or who simply want to carry on an independent economic activity but within a supportive group context. A "purchasing cooperative" is a type of cooperative arrangement, often among businesses, to agree to aggregate demand to get lower prices from selected suppliers. Retailers' cooperatives are

658-401: A cushion against losses or as a means to finance growth activities. Examples of this are not-for-profit entities: they are allowed to make profits, but are not permitted to give any of it back to members except by way of discounts in the future on new transactions. Depending on the charter at the foundation of the entity, and depending on the legal framework under which the entity was created,

752-401: A form of purchasing cooperative. Major purchasing cooperatives include Best Western , ACE Hardware and CCA Global Partners . Agricultural service cooperatives provide various services to their individual farming members, and to agricultural production cooperatives , where production resources such as land or machinery are pooled and members farm jointly. Ownership Ownership

846-537: A fundamental challenge to the hegemony of global neoliberal capitalism . Many cooperatives follow the seven Rochdale Principles : Since 2002, ICA cooperatives and WOCCU credit unions could be distinguished by use of a .coop domain. In 2014, ICA introduced the Global Cooperative Marque for use by ICAs Cooperative members and by WOCCU's Credit Union members so they can be further identified by their coop ethical consumerism label. The marque

940-441: A legally constituted condominium, i.e. restricting use appropriately and containing financial liabilities to within tolerable levels. To change their structure now that they are up and operating would require significant effort to achieve acceptance among members and various levels of government. The owning entity makes rules governing use of property; each property may comprise areas that are made available to any and every member of

1034-708: A major area of business . An individual or group of individuals can own shares in corporations and other legal entities , but do not necessarily own the entities themselves. A legal entity is a legal construct through which the law allows a group of natural persons to act as if it were an individual for certain purposes. Some duly incorporated entities may not be owned by individuals nor by other entities; they exist without being owned once they are created. Not being owned, they cannot be bought and sold. Mutual life insurance companies, credit unions , foundations and cooperatives , not for profit organizations, and public corporations are examples of this. No person can purchase

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1128-531: A member's investment into the cooperative. In the United States, many cooperatives were formed to provide rural electrical and telephone service as part of the New Deal . See Rural Utilities Service . In the case of electricity, cooperatives are generally either generation and transmission (G&T) co-ops that create and send power via the transmission grid or local distribution co-ops that gather electricity from

1222-593: A newspaper, The Cooperator , to promote Owen's thinking, having already set up a cooperative store in Brighton. Also in 1810, Rev. Henry Duncan of the Ruthwell Presbyterian Church in Dumfriesshire, Scotland founded a friendly society to create a cooperative depository institution at which his poorest parishioners could hold savings accounts accruing interest for sickness and old-age , which

1316-459: A particular subset of intellectual property known as industrial property . Like other forms of property, intellectual property (or rather the exclusive rights which subsist in the IP) can be transferred ( with or without consideration) or licensed to third parties. In some jurisdictions it is possible to use intellectual property as collateral for a loan . The basic public policy rationale for

1410-451: A partner or owner in a group may give little advantage in terms of share ownership while producing a lot of risk to the partner, owner or participant. At the end of each fiscal year , accounting rules determine a surplus or profit, which may be retained inside the entity or distributed among owners according to the initial setup intent when the entity was created. For public corporations, common shareholders have no right to receive any of

1504-411: A problem occurs which leads to a massive liability, the individual is protected from losing more than the value of that one property. Many other properties are protected, when owned by other distinct entities. In the loosest sense of group ownership, a lack of legal framework, rules and regulations may mean that group ownership of property places each member in a position of responsibility (liability) for

1598-593: A proportion of trading profits back into their communities. As an example of this, in 2013, retail co-operatives in the UK invested 6.9% of their pre-tax profits in the communities in which they trade, compared to 2.4% for rival supermarkets. Since 2002, cooperatives have been distinguishable on the Internet through the use of a .coop domain. In 2014, the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) introduced

1692-507: A public place every year. Despite the short duration of its existence, until 1851, it thus formed the basis of the cooperative movement in Slovakia. Slovak national thinker Ľudovít Štúr said about the association: " We would very much like such excellent constitutions to be established throughout our region. They would help to rescue people from evil and misery. A beautiful, great idea, a beautiful excellent constitution! " Other events such as

1786-575: A range of social characteristics. Membership is open, meaning that anyone who satisfies certain non-discriminatory conditions may join. Economic benefits are distributed proportionally to each member's level of participation in the cooperative, for instance, by a dividend on sales or purchases, rather than according to capital invested. Cooperatives may be classified as either worker , consumer , producer , purchasing or housing cooperatives. They are distinguished from other forms of incorporation in that profit-making or economic stability are balanced by

1880-399: A responsibility to others for actions regarding the property. A "legal shield" is said to exist if the entity's legal liabilities do not get redistributed among the entity's owners or members. An application of this, to limit ownership risks, is to form a new entity (such as a shell company ) to purchase, own and operate each property. Since the entity is separate and distinct from others, if

1974-470: A secure income. The innovation BECs introduce is that once the businesses are established, the entrepreneurs are not forced to leave and set up independently, but can stay and become full members of the cooperative. The micro-enterprises then combine to form one multi-activity enterprise whose members provide a mutually supportive environment for each other. BECs thus provide budding business people with an easy transition from inactivity to self-employment, but in

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2068-894: A significant market share in Europe and Latin America, as well as a few countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. They also have a strong presence in Asia, Australia, and the United States. According to the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), there were 68,882 financial cooperatives in 109 countries in 2016, serving more than 235 million members, with total assets exceeding 1.7 trillion dollars. The WOCCU's data do not include some major financial cooperative networks in Europe, such as Germany, Finland, France, Denmark, and Italy. In many high-income economies, financial cooperatives hold significant market shares of

2162-487: A thousand cooperative societies in the United Kingdom. "Spolok Gazdovský" ( The Association of Administrators or The Association of Farmers ) founded in 1845 by Samuel Jurkovič, was the first cooperative in Europe ( Credit union ). The cooperative provided a cheap loan from funds generated by regular savings for members of the cooperative. Members of cooperative had to commit to a moral life and had to plant two trees in

2256-542: A trust that owns the company. The impact of political ideology on practice constrains the development of cooperatives in different countries. In India, there is a form of workers' cooperative which insists on compulsory membership for all employees and compulsory employment for all members. That is the form of the Indian Coffee Houses . This system was advocated by the Indian communist leader A. K. Gopalan . In places like

2350-546: A useful condition of artificial roads such as Viamala in 1472. Pre-industrial Europe is home to the first cooperatives from an industrial context. The roots of the cooperative movement can be traced to multiple influences and extend worldwide. In the English-speaking world , post- feudal forms of cooperation between workers and owners that are expressed today as " profit sharing " and "surplus sharing" arrangements existed as far back as 1795. The key ideological influence on

2444-446: A variety of sources and send it along to homes and businesses. In Tanzania, it has been proven that the cooperative method is helpful in water distribution. When the people are involved with their own water, they care more because the quality of their work has a direct effect on the quality of their water. Credit unions are cooperative financial institutions owned and controlled by their members. Credit unions provide to its members

2538-581: A variety of ways, such as goods , money , negotiable instruments , securities , and intangible assets including choses in action . Real estate or immovable property is a legal term (in some jurisdictions) that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings . Real estate (immovable property) is often considered synonymous with real property , in contrast from personal property (also sometimes called chattel or personalty ). However, for technical purposes, some people prefer to distinguish real estate, referring to

2632-404: Is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-controlled enterprise ". Cooperatives are democratically controlled by their members, with each member having one vote in electing the board of directors. They differ from collectives in that they are generally built from

2726-711: Is a key factor in determining their type. Each type has advantages and disadvantages derived from their means of recognizing or disregarding (rewarding or not) contributions of financial capital or personal effort. Cooperatives , corporations , trusts , partnerships , and condominium associations are only some of the many varied types of structured ownership; each type has many subtypes. Legal advantages or restrictions on various types of structured ownership have existed in many societies past and present. To govern how assets are to be used, shared, or treated, rules and regulations may be legally imposed or internally adopted or decreed. Ownership by definition does not necessarily imply

2820-425: Is often called movable property or movables – any property that can be moved from one location or another. This term is used to distinguish property that different from immovable property or immovables, such as land and buildings. This also means the direct owner of the item(s) is in full control of them/it until either stolen, confiscated by law enforcement , or destroyed. Personal property may be classified in

2914-495: Is ongoing debate as to whether IP laws truly operate to confer the stated public benefits, and whether the protection they are said to provide is appropriate in the context of innovation derived from such things as traditional knowledge and folklore, and patents for software and business methods . Manifestations of this controversy can be seen in the way different jurisdictions decide whether to grant intellectual property protection in relation to subject matter of this kind, and

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3008-481: Is released in stages as the building is completed. The term may also refer to worker cooperatives in the building trade. A utility cooperative is a type of consumers' cooperative that is tasked with the delivery of a public utility such as electricity, water or telecommunications services to its members. Profits are either reinvested into infrastructure or distributed to members in the form of "patronage" or "capital credits", which are essentially dividends paid on

3102-456: Is the key building block in the development of the capitalist socio-economic system. Adam Smith stated that one of the sacred laws of justice was to guard a person's property and possessions. Individuals may own property directly. In some societies only adult men may own property; in other societies (such as the Haudenosaunee ), property is matrilinear and passed on from mother to

3196-410: Is the sole owner of a homestead, and the cooperative may be dissolved. This collective effort was at the origin of many of Britain's building societies , which however, developed into "permanent" mutual savings and loan organisations, a term which persisted in some of their names (such as the former Leeds Permanent ). Nowadays such self-building may be financed using a step-by-step mortgage which

3290-485: Is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property , which may be any asset, tangible or intangible . Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as title , which may be separated and held by different parties. The process and mechanics of ownership are fairly complex: one can gain, transfer, and lose ownership of property in a number of ways. To acquire property one can purchase it with money , trade it for other property, win it in

3384-421: Is used today by thousands of cooperatives in more than a hundred countries. The .coop domain and Co-operative Marque were designed as a new symbol of the global cooperative movement and its collective identity in the digital age. The Co-operative Marque and domain is reserved just for co-operatives, credit unions and organisations that support co-operatives; is distinguished by its ethical badge that subscribes to

3478-550: The American Civil War . Chattel slavery is currently (2020) illegal in every country in the world. However, until the 19th century slavery in one form or another existed in most societies and was thought of as the normal state of things; slaves of whatever ethnicity were considered racially inferior. Notwithstanding the illegality of enslavement, virtual slavery still exists in various forms today, although called by other names. The question of ownership reaches back to

3572-721: The Gaeltacht in Ireland and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. A worker cooperative or producer cooperative is a cooperative owned and democratically controlled by its "worker-owners". In a pure worker cooperative, only the workers own shares of the business on a one person, one vote basis, though hybrid forms exist in which consumers, community members or investors also own some shares (though these shares may or may not have voting power). In practice, control by worker-owners may be exercised through individual, collective or majority ownership by

3666-561: The New Lanark mill from Owen's father-in-law, David Dale , and proceeded to introduce better labour standards, including discounted retail shops where profits were passed on to his employees. Owen left New Lanark to pursue other forms of cooperative organization and develop coop ideas through writing and lecture. Cooperative communities were set up in Glasgow , Indiana and Hampshire , although ultimately unsuccessful. In 1828, William King set up

3760-780: The North Anna Nuclear Generating Station in Louisa County, Virginia . ODEC President Jack Reasor in 2007 stated that ODEC does not support a cap on carbon emissions as proposed by the United States Carbon Cap-and-Trade Program . In 2009, ODEC proposed building a coal plant in Dendron, Virginia . In 2010, ODEC agreed to purchase the output of the Criterion Wind Project under a 20 year contract. Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative

3854-513: The Tragedy of the Commons , occurs where unlimited unrestricted and unregulated access to a resource (e.g. pasture land) destroys the resource because of over-exploitation . The benefits of exploitation accrue to individuals immediately, while the costs of policing or enforcing appropriate use, and the losses dues to over exploitation, are distributed among many, and are only visible to these gradually. In

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3948-515: The ancient philosophers , Plato and Aristotle , who held different opinions on the subject. Plato (428/427 BC – 348/347 BC) thought private property created divisive inequalities, while Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) thought private property enabled people to receive the full benefit of their labor . Private property can circumvent what is now referred to as the " tragedy of the commons " problem, where people tend to degrade common property more than they do private property. While Aristotle justified

4042-439: The 'Urgenossen'. A community cooperative is owned and governed by members of a local geographical community. It is established to meet the community's needs by providing goods or services that are not available or affordable through traditional market channels. This is distinct from meeting individuals' needs as individuals. The aim of a community cooperative is often to create a more equitable and sustainable economy that serves

4136-565: The Anglosphere branch of the cooperative movement, however, was a rejection of the charity principles that underpinned welfare reforms when the British government radically revised its Poor Laws in 1834. As both state and church institutions began to routinely distinguish between the 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor, a movement of friendly societies grew throughout the British Empire based on

4230-526: The Cooperative Marque, meaning ICA cooperatives and WOCCU credit unions can also be identified through a coop ethical consumerism label. Cooperation dates back as far as human beings have been organizing for mutual benefits. Tribes were organized as cooperative structures, allocating jobs and resources among each other, only trading with the external communities. In alpine environments, trade could only be maintained in organized cooperatives to achieve

4324-463: The IP. The term intellectual property reflects the idea that this subject matter is the product of the mind or the intellect, and that IP rights may be protected at law in the same way as any other form of property . Intellectual property laws confer a bundle of exclusive rights in relation to the particular form or manner in which ideas or information are expressed or manifested, and not in relation to

4418-613: The International Raiffeisen Union. In the United States, the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA CLUSA; the abbreviation of the organization retains the initials of its former name, Cooperative League of the USA) serves as the sector 's oldest national membership association. It is dedicated to ensuring that cooperative businesses have the same opportunities as other businesses operating in

4512-499: The John Lewis Partnership, where profits are distributed to the workers, but at the discretion of a senior elected board. Business and employment cooperatives (BECs) are a subset of worker cooperatives that represent a new approach to providing support to the creation of new businesses. Like other business creation support schemes, BEC's enable budding entrepreneurs to experiment with their business idea while benefiting from

4606-629: The Netherlands, Rabobank holds 34% of deposits, and in France cooperative banks (Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel and BPCE Group) possess more than 59% of domestic credit and 61% of domestic deposits. In Finland, OP financial group holds 35% and 38% of domestic credit and deposits, respectively, and in Canada, Desjardins holds around 42% of domestic deposits and 22% of domestic credit. There are many types of cooperative financial institutions with different names across

4700-527: The SKOK ( Spółdzielcze Kasy Oszczędnościowo-Kredytowe ) network grew to serve over 1 million members via 13,000 branches, and was larger than the country's largest conventional bank. In the Scandinavia , there is a clear distinction between mutual savings banks (Sparbank) and true credit unions (Andelsbank). The oldest cooperative banks in Europe, based on the ideas of Friedrich Raiffeisen, are joined in

4794-457: The UK, common ownership (indivisible collective ownership) was popular in the 1970s. Cooperative Societies only became legal in Britain after the passing of Slaney's Act in 1852. In 1865 there were 651 registered societies with a total membership of well over 200,000. There are now more than 400 worker cooperatives in the UK, Suma Wholefoods being the largest example with a turnover of £24 million. There also exist some pseudo-cooperatives, such as

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4888-621: The United States, Italy, or France. A consumers' cooperative is a business owned by its customers. Members vote on major decisions and elect the board of directors from among their own number. The first of these was set up in 1844 in the North-West of England by 28 weavers who wanted to sell food at a lower price than the local shops. Retail cooperatives are retailers, such as grocery stores, owned by their customers. They should not be confused with retailers' cooperatives, whose members are retailers rather than consumers. In Singapore, Italy, and Finland

4982-411: The actions of every other member. A structured group duly constituted as an entity under law may still not protect members from being personally liable for each other's actions. Court decisions against the entity itself may give rise to unlimited personal liability for each and every member. An example of this situation is a professional partnership (e.g. law practice ) in some jurisdictions . Thus, being

5076-628: The banking sector. According to the European Association of Cooperative Banks, the market share of cooperative banks in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) credit market by the end of 2016 was 37% in Finland, 45% in France, 33% in Germany, 43% in the Netherlands, and 22% in Canada. In Germany, Volksbanken-Raiffeisen banks have a market share of approximately 21% of domestic credit and domestic deposits. In

5170-525: The bottom-up, rather than the top-down. Cooperatives may include: The Research published by the Worldwatch Institute found that in 2012 approximately one billion people in 96 countries had become members of at least one cooperative. The turnover of the largest three hundred cooperatives in the world reached $ 2.2 trillion . Worker cooperatives are typically more productive and economically resilient than many other forms of enterprise, with twice

5264-433: The company with the largest market share in the grocery store sector is a consumer owned cooperative. In Switzerland both the largest and the second largest retailer are consumer owned cooperatives. A housing cooperative is a legal mechanism for ownership of housing where residents either own shares (share capital co-op) reflecting their equity in the cooperative's real estate or have membership and occupancy rights in

5358-402: The company, as their ownership is not legally available for sale, neither as shares nor as a single whole. Intellectual property (IP) refers to a legal entitlement which sometimes attaches to the expressed form of an idea , or to some other intangible subject matter. This legal entitlement generally enables its holder to exercise exclusive rights of use in relation to the subject matter of

5452-433: The constraints of various systems of national law) is the principle that an enterprise or association should be owned and controlled by the people it serves, and share any surpluses on the basis of each member's cooperative contribution (as a producer, labourer or consumer) rather than their capacity to invest financial capital. The International Co-operative Alliance was the first international association formed (1895) by

5546-623: The cooperative movement. It includes the World Council of Credit Unions . The International Cooperative Alliance was founded in London, England on 19 August 1895 during the 1st Cooperative Congress. In attendance were delegates from cooperatives from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, England, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, India, Italy, Switzerland, Serbia, and the US. A second organization formed later in Germany:

5640-681: The country and that consumers have access to cooperatives in the marketplace. In 1945 Artturi Ilmari Virtanen received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his invention of the AIV silage . This invention improved milk production and created a method of preserving butter, the AIV salt, which led to increased Finnish butter exports. He had started his career in chemistry in Valio , a cooperative of dairy farmers in which he headed

5734-511: The entity. Depending on internal rules and regulations, certain classes of shares have the right to receive increases in financial "dividends" while other classes do not. After many years the increase over time is substantial if the business is profitable. Examples of this are common shares and preferred shares in private or publicly listed share capital corporations. Entities with a focus on providing service in perpetuam do not distribute financial surplus; they must retain it. It will then serve as

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5828-465: The existence of private ownership, he left two open questions In modern western politics , some people believe that exclusive ownership of property underlies much social injustice, and facilitates tyranny and oppression on an individual and societal scale. Others consider the striving to achieve greater ownership of wealth as the driving factor behind human innovation and technological advancement and increasing standards of living . Some support

5922-840: The first in Europe. By 2004 a new association focused on worker co-ops was founded, the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives . The cooperative movement has been fueled globally by ideas of economic democracy . Economic democracy is a socioeconomic philosophy that suggests an expansion of decision-making power from a small minority of corporate shareholders to a larger majority of public stakeholders. There are many different approaches to thinking about and building economic democracy. Anarchists are committed to libertarian socialism and have focused on local organization, including locally managed cooperatives, linked through confederations of unions, cooperatives and communities. Marxists, who as socialists have likewise held and worked for

6016-514: The form of the state . Though they regard the state as an unnecessarily oppressive institution, Marxists considered appropriating national and international-scale capitalist institutions and resources (such as the state) to be an important first pillar in creating conditions favorable to solidaristic economies. With the declining influence of the USSR after the 1960s, socialist strategies pluralized, though economic democratizers have not as yet established

6110-431: The form of ownership is determined once and for all time. To change it requires significant work in terms of communicating with stakeholders (member-owners, governments, etc.) and acquiring their approval. Whatever structural constraints or disadvantages exist at the creation thus remain an integral part of the entity. Common in, for instance, New York City , Hamburg , and Berlin is a form of real estate ownership known as

6204-466: The founding of a friendly society by the Tolpuddle Martyrs in 1832 were key occasions in the creation of organized labor and consumer movements. Friendly Societies established forums through which one member, one vote was practiced in organisation decision-making. The principles challenged the idea that a person should be an owner of property before being granted a political voice. Throughout

6298-444: The goal of democratizing productive and reproductive relationships, often placed a greater strategic emphasis on confronting the larger scales of human organization. As they viewed the capitalist class to be politically, militarily and culturally mobilized for the purpose of maintaining an exploitable working class, they fought in the early 20th century to appropriate from the capitalist class the society's collective political capacity in

6392-420: The group to use. When the group is the entire nation, the same principle is in effect whether the property is small (e.g. picnic rest stops along highways ) or large (such as national parks , highways, ports, and publicly owned buildings). Smaller examples of shared use include common areas such as lobbies, entrance hallways and passages to adjacent buildings. One disadvantage of communal ownership, known as

6486-434: The ideas or concepts themselves (see idea-expression divide ). The term "intellectual property" denotes the specific legal rights which authors, inventors and other IP holders may hold and exercise, and not the intellectual work itself. Intellectual property laws are designed to protect different forms of intangible subject matter, although in some cases there is a degree of overlap. Patents, trademarks and designs fall into

6580-508: The interests of the community. There are specific forms of incorporation for cooperatives in some countries, e.g. Finland and Australia. Cooperatives may take the form of companies limited by shares or by guarantee, partnerships or unincorporated associations. In the UK they may also use the industrial and provident society structure. In the US, cooperatives are often organized as non-capital stock corporations under state-specific cooperative laws. Cooperatives often share their earnings with

6674-412: The land and fixtures themselves, from real property, referring to ownership rights over real estate. The terms real estate and real property are used primarily in common law , while civil law jurisdictions refer instead to immovable property . In law, the word real means relating to a thing (from Latin reālis, ultimately from rēs , 'matter' or 'thing'), as distinguished from a person. Thus

6768-416: The latter view, believing that ownership is necessary for liberty itself. Ownership society was a political slogan used by United States President George W. Bush to promote a series of policies aimed to increase the control of individual citizens over health care and social security payments and policies. Critics have claimed that slogan hid an agenda that sought to implement tax cuts and curtail

6862-408: The law broadly distinguishes between real property (land and anything affixed to it) and personal property (everything else, e.g., clothing, furniture, money). The conceptual difference is between immovable property, which would transfer title along with the land, and movable property, which a person would retain title to. With the development of private property ownership, real estate has become

6956-427: The membership as dividends , which are divided among the members according to their participation in the enterprise, such as patronage, instead of according to the value of their capital shareholdings (as is done by a joint stock company ). The cooperative share capital or co-operative share capital (in short cooperative capital or co-operative capital ) is the form of capital that the cooperative accumulates from

7050-443: The needs of local residents, rather than generating profits for external shareholders. By working together and pooling resources, members can often achieve economies of scale, negotiate better prices, and develop services that better meet the needs of their community. Community cooperatives can also help to build social capital and foster a sense of community ownership and pride. They have been successful vehicles for rural development in

7144-495: The number of co-operatives (80%) surviving their first five years compared with other business ownership models (44%) according to data from United Kingdom. The largest worker owned cooperative in the world, the Mondragon Corporation (founded by Catholic priest José María Arizmendiarrieta ), has been in continuous operation since 1956. Cooperatives frequently have social goals, which they aim to accomplish by investing

7238-575: The offspring. In most societies both men and women can own property with no restrictions and limitations at all. Throughout history, nations (or governments ) and religious organizations have owned property. These entities exist primarily for purposes other than to own or operate property; hence, they may have no clear rules regarding the disposition of their property. To own and operate property, structures (often known today as legal entities ) have been created in many societies throughout history. The differences in how they deal with members' rights

7332-468: The owner of a property also owns any economic benefits or deficits associated with the property. Over the millennia and across cultures, notions regarding what constitutes "property" and how it is treated culturally have varied widely. Ownership is the basis for many other concepts that form the foundations of ancient and modern societies such as money , trade , debt , bankruptcy , the criminality of theft , and private vs. public property. Ownership

7426-451: The paid participation shares of its members. The total amount of participation shares the paid to the cooperative constitutes the cooperative capital. The co-operative share capital is usually non-withdrawable and indivisible to the cooperative members. The top 300 largest cooperatives were listed in 2007 by the International Co-operative Alliance . 80% were involved in either agriculture , finance , or retail and more than half were in

7520-534: The principle of mutuality, committed to self-help in the welfare of working people. In 1761, the Fenwick Weavers' Society was formed in Fenwick, East Ayrshire , Scotland to sell discounted oatmeal to local workers. Its services expanded to include assistance with savings and loans, emigration and education. In 1810, Welsh social reformer Robert Owen , from Newtown in mid- Wales , and his partners purchased

7614-508: The profit. Entities with a member focus will give financial surplus back to members according to the volume of financial activity that the participating member generated for the entity. Examples of this are producer cooperatives, buyer cooperatives and participating whole life policyholders in both mutual and share-capital insurance companies . Entities with shared voting rights that depend on financial capital distribute surplus among shareholders without regard to any other contribution to

7708-432: The protection of intellectual property is that IP laws facilitate and encourage disclosure of innovation into the public domain for the common good , by granting authors and inventors exclusive rights to exploit their works and invention for a limited period. However, various schools of thought are critical of the very concept of intellectual property, and some characterise IP as intellectual protectionism . There

7802-461: The research department for 50 years and where all his major inventions were first put to practice. Cooperative banks were first to adopt online banking. Stanford Federal Credit Union was the first financial institution to offer online internet banking services to all of its members in October 1994. In 1996 OP Financial Group , also a cooperative bank , became the second online bank in the world and

7896-526: The rise of trade unions and industrial factories. Weinbren reports that by the end of the 19th century, over 80% of British working age men and 90% of Australian working age men were members of one or more Friendly Society. From the mid-nineteenth century, mutual organisations embraced these ideas in economic enterprises, firstly among tradespeople, and later in cooperative stores, educational institutes, financial institutions and industrial enterprises. The common thread (enacted in different ways, and subject to

7990-452: The same services as banks but are considered not-for-profit organizations and adhere to cooperative principles . Credit unions originated in mid-19th-century Germany through the efforts of pioneers Franz Herman Schulze'Delitzsch and Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen . The concept of financial cooperatives crossed the Atlantic at the turn of the 20th century, when the caisse populaire movement

8084-434: The second half of the nineteenth century (and then repeatedly every twenty years or so) there was a surge in the number of cooperative organisations, both in commercial practice and civil society, operating to advance democracy and universal suffrage as a political principle. Friendly Societies and consumer cooperatives became the dominant form of organization among working people in Anglosphere industrial societies prior to

8178-482: The seven ICA Cooperative Principles and Co-op Values. Co-ops can be identified on the Internet through the use of the .coop suffix of internet addresses . Organizations using .coop domain names must adhere to the basic co-op values. A cooperative is a legal entity owned and democratically controlled by its members. Members often have a close association with the enterprise as producers or consumers of its products or services, or as its employees. The legal entities have

8272-408: The stark divide on issues of the role and scope of intellectual property laws. The term "Slavery" is commonly understood to refer to chattel slavery. The living human body is, in modern societies, considered something which cannot be the property of anyone but the person whose body it is. Its opposite, in which the person in the body does not own their body, is chattel slavery . Chattel slavery

8366-413: The workforce, or the retention of individual, collective or majority voting rights. A worker cooperative, therefore, has the characteristic that the majority of its workforce owns shares, and the majority of shares are owned by the workforce. Membership is not always compulsory for employees, but generally, only employees can become members either directly (as shareholders) or indirectly through membership of

8460-652: The world, including financial cooperatives ('cooperativa financiera' is the Spanish term used in Latin America), cooperative banks, credit unions, and savings and credit cooperatives ('cooperativa de ahorro y crédito' in Spanish or ' coopérative d'épargne et de credit ' in French-speaking countries). Cooperative banking networks, which were nationalized in Eastern Europe, continued as cooperative institutions. In Poland,

8554-1063: Was a member of the cooperative until 31 December 2008, when it terminated its contract. TEC Trading is a Class B member of Old Dominion and is owned by ODEC's member cooperatives. TEC purchases excess power from Old Dominion and sells it on the market. "Surry Board of Supervisor approves controversial coal plant" Daily Press, Feb. 5, 2010 [1] "Surry power plant now faces last local hurdle" Daily Press, Feb. 2, 2010 [2] "Facing objections, company eyes second power plant site" The Virginian-Pilot, Jan. 31, 2010 [3] "Consider power plant from regional perspective" Tidewater News, Jan. 30, 2010 [4] "IOW wants more information on proposed coal plant" Tidewater News, Jan. 23, 2010 [5] "Surry Coal Plant Pros and Cons" Richmond Times Dispatch, May 17, 2009 [6] "Proposed coal plant clears another hurdle" Daily Press, Dec. 16, 2009 [7] "Virginia's Energy Future-Energy on land" HearSay with Cathy Lewis, WHRV FM, Feb. 26, 2010 [8] Cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative , co-op , or coop )

8648-514: Was defined as the absolute legal ownership of a person, including the legal right to buy and sell them. Persons who were so enslaved did not have the freedom to direct their own actions, and their legal rights were either severely limited or nonexistent. The Antebellum period in the United States is considered both the worst for the exploitation of chattel slaves, and also where the practice aroused such fierce opposition and support that it led to

8742-635: Was started by Alphonse Desjardins in Quebec, Canada. In 1900, from his home in Lévis , he opened North America's first credit union, marking the beginning of the Mouvement Desjardins . Eight years later, Desjardins provided guidance for the first credit union in the United States , where there are now about 7,950 active status federally insured credit unions, with almost 90 million members and more than $ 679 billion on deposit. Financial cooperatives hold

8836-625: Was the first established savings bank that would be merged into the Trustee Savings Bank between 1970 and 1985. The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers , founded in 1844, is usually considered the first successful cooperative enterprise, used as a model for modern coops, following the ' Rochdale Principles '. A group of 28 weavers and other artisans in Rochdale , England set up the society to open their own store selling food items they could not otherwise afford. Within ten years there were over

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