I think human nature is such that any cooperative can work up to a limited size, kind of like primitive tribes - up to 150 people. In order to do your part honestly, you have to know most/all members personally, otherwise an incentive to slack on the job is too tempting…
And then one sees the manager/coordinator, sitting on their ass in air conditioned office, while most others are sweating outside (in case of farms) or in the workshop/garage…
You’re right that cooperatives above a certain size can’t be direct democracies. I do think we need to be able to cooperate at scale in a democratic way, like representative democracy - otherwise how do countries work? (Not very well some might argue) but if we don’t develop an alternative to the googles and amazons of the world then we’ll never outcompete the current system.
I think human nature is such that any cooperative can work up to a limited size, kind of like primitive tribes - up to 150 people. In order to do your part honestly, you have to know most/all members personally, otherwise an incentive to slack on the job is too tempting…
And then one sees the manager/coordinator, sitting on their ass in air conditioned office, while most others are sweating outside (in case of farms) or in the workshop/garage…
You’re right that cooperatives above a certain size can’t be direct democracies. I do think we need to be able to cooperate at scale in a democratic way, like representative democracy - otherwise how do countries work? (Not very well some might argue) but if we don’t develop an alternative to the googles and amazons of the world then we’ll never outcompete the current system.
Direct democracy is possible at scale with technology.