Cooperatives have become the most important actors of the new socioeconomic model that the Hugo Chávez government is trying to found in Venezuela. Public officials engaged in the promotion of the cooperative enterprise organizational model had presumed that the democratic, egalitarian and solidaristic principles that define it would serve not only to replace the wage-labor relation with that of associated workers within enterprises, but also to transcend the capitalist logic of the Venezuelan economy with one in which human beings’ individual and social needs are at the center. A study of 15 cooperatives in Venezuela supports more recent statements by Venezuelan policy makers, to the effect that workplace democracy is not sufficient for workers to adopt the needs of other communities. Democratic planning or coordination between enterprises and communities is necessary for enterprises to be able to effectively and efficiently satisfy social needs.
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