This paper assesses how far the theses of co-operative degeneration and decline apply to the French experience. After outlining the arguments concerning cooperative failure in terms of market, democratic and labour-oriented terms, the paper shows that a sample of 60 French co-operatives-particularly the more democratic of them-outperformed capitalist enterprises in economic terms and yet still maintained a strong labour orientation. The final section develops a life cycle model of co-operatives which indicates there is not a steady, long-term decline in economic performance, democracy or labour orientation.
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