Representative Economic Democracy and the Problem of Policy Influence: The Case of Canadian Co-operatives

AbstractThis article discusses interest representation by Canadian co-operative business associations, as a way of exploring difficulties faced by democratically structured group interests in influencing federal government policy. Several dimensions of co-operatives’ problems in this regard are examined: their internal structures of democratic representation, their reform ideology, their influence by two conflicting logics of collective action and selected aspects of federal policy development. The article concludes by contending that the problem of democratic representation by economic group interests in the policy process should be taken more seriously by Canadian political scientists.