Theoretical aspects of cooperativism and its implications for the management of cooperatives

Abstract

Consolidated in the world for over 100 years and present in Brazil since the beginning of the twentieth century, cooperativism has in its genesis the social aspect, coming from the theories of the utopian socialists of the midnineteenth century. With the passing of the years, cooperativism has been reframing, following the socioeconomic changes in the world and creating and appropriating a strand of economic thought that generate results and promote the growth of the whole movement. And it is in the understanding of these two theoretical aspects of cooperativism that this work rests in order to present the complementarity between the two aspects for the good performance of the cooperatives. The results presented indicate that in trying to maximize individual short-term gains, to the detriment of collective gains, individuals may affect the cooperative in the long run. But that also the overlapping of social aspects with the economic ones can discourage the cooperative. In this way the proposal is to show a current can be complementary to the other in the management and the perenniality of the cooperative.