Basic Cooperative Principles and Their Relationship to Selected Practices

Abstract

This paper describes a set of basic cooperative principles adopted in a recent Agricultural Cooperative Service study and how these principles relate to various cooperative business practices and issues facing U.S. cooperative organizations. Three principles relating use of a cooperative to ownership, control, and distribution of benefits are outlined. The relationship of these principles to a number of topics, including cooperative membership and control, differential treatment programs, and cooperative finance, is examined.