Unifying With Cooperative Principles

Polarization of public opinion has accelerated in recent years. Throughout history political and military leaders have unified people against others to garner support for conducting civil or foreign wars. In recent years some politicians, without wanting war, have gained loyal supporters by demonizing opposition leaders and their supporters. This strategy is traced back to the philosopher, Leo Strauss (1899-1973). He asserted that “People can only be unified against other people” (Buruma, 6). Over the last three decades or longer Strauss’s teachings and writings have been adapted by some political operatives as a strategy for winning elections. However, contemporary philosophers point out that these influences involve a selective and distorted understanding of his writings (Lilla and Rudolph).

People can be unified for other purposes as well. An obvious exception to Strauss’s observation is the unity at the core of cooperatives which with their principles offer a different approach, one of openness and voluntary acceptance.

In the literature on cooperatives, the clearest and most direct challenge to polarization was articulated in a book published in 1939 by James P. Warbasse, Cooperation as a Way of Peace. He discusses how wars throughout history were caused by extreme economic inequality and resulting political divisiveness.

In later chapters of his book, he discusses the drifting of democratic governments toward authoritarianism, as had occurred in Germany, Italy, and Russia. He believed that economies with robust sectors of cooperatives would diminish inequality and social antagonisms, and provide support for democratic governments.

This article discusses why it is worthwhile to resurrect a book from 1939 to address problems of our current politics.

James P. Warbasse (1866-1957)

Warbasse was a highly regarded physician and surgeon. His opposition to wars may have partially stemmed from his service as a US Army surgeon during the Spanish-American War. His writings on socialized health care were published in the 1910’s. During that decade he was a member of the Recruiting Local No. 174 of the Industrial Workers of the World (Wikipedia).

In 1916 Warbasse, his wife, and others established the Cooperative League of the U.S.A. (CLUSA), the precursor to the National Cooperative Business Association. He was its president from the start until 1941. He authored several books on both medical and cooperative topics. His best-known work was Cooperative Democracy, published in 1923 and republished in several later editions.

CLUSA’s purpose was to advocate for the interests of consumer cooperatives. He reasoned that since we are all consumers there is a commonality of interest. Warbasse felt that coordinating with non-consumer cooperatives could create conflicts of interests. Today there is a greater understanding of how multi-stakeholder cooperatives can work together.

Cooperative Principles and Values

CLUSA adhered to nine cooperative principles during its early period. Most of them were restated in the current seven principles and values issued in 1995 by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA). They mostly have the same ideas as the CLUSA principles and can be used to discuss his application of the principles in Cooperation as a Way of Peace as a counter direction to the Strauss observation.

Several of the principles involve inclusiveness and bringing people together. The first principle, Voluntary and Open Membership, directly counters discrimination and antagonism toward others. Principle 2, Democratic Member Control, not only reflects the values of cooperatives but also provides an educational function for democratic government.

Principle 3, Member Economic Participation, creates equitable treatment in the sharing of a cooperative’s benefits. It also establishes fairness in how members finance their cooperatives.

Principle 7, Concern for Community, is the core strength of cooperatives in unifying people so long as communities do not become insular. All seven principles support unifying people based on working together for greater benefits.

The ICA principles of 1995 also included for the first time a statement of values that include caring for others and solidarity. Warbasse may have anticipated the 1995 revisions because he discusses cooperative values throughout his book. He was especially aware of how they pertain to respect for others and accomplish peace. For example:

“Cooperation trains individuals in this spirit of mutual helpfulness. It makes people better neighbors. It emphasizes common interests. It tends to draw people together in mutual sympathy” (16).

Political Neutrality

The ICA in 1995 replaced neutrality with principle 4, Autonomy and Independence. This change covers concerns about preventing control over cooperatives by a political party. Political neutrality has persisted as a practice and policy by many cooperatives, possibly due to adherence to Principle 4.

Political neutrality may have had special importance to Warbasse given his struggles during the 1920s-30s to prevent the American Communist Party from seizing governance control of CLUSA. This struggle intensified after a mass migration of Finnish communists to the USA after their defeat in Finland’s Civil War of 1918 (Tammi, chapter 4).

In recent years political neutrality has become of questionable usefulness. Frank Lindenfeld pointed out that the principles and values are contrary to capitalist practices, so cooperatives are effectively allied for or against different political parties even when claiming neutrality. Furthermore, neutrality influences some members of political parties to have less interest in cooperatives and reduces connections to favorable networks of supporters. He also pointed out that neutrality and the dominance of a two-party system in the USA makes it difficult to obtain legislative support for cooperatives, or to prevent negative legislation. (Lindenfeld).

However, while affiliation with a political party may gain some members for cooperatives, it may also cause losses. Cooperatives are often different in terms of member political loyalty, and some are likely to be politically independent. Neutrality does not mean that cooperatives are uninvolved with politics. While most cooperatives do not align or identify with any political party, they may support or oppose aspects of any party’s platform. As a corollary practice, cooperative members may individually support different political parties, but their work together to achieve common business and social goals builds an ethics of tolerance and acceptance.

Cooperative Education for All

Cooperative Principle number 5, Education, Training, and Information, provides for continued education for members and for outreach to the general public. Public outreach deserves emphasis since it can counter the influence of political operatives in pitting people against one another.

Public outreach can also promote opportunities for members and nonmembers to invest in preferred stock of cooperatives. Such investments benefit both investors and the cooperatives. The public should be informed that cooperatives are a relatively safe place to invest because of their commitment to stability and longevity. Although cooperatives are an alternative to exploitive capitalism, they are not against investments of capital to grow an economy.

While political operatives energize their followers by directing anger at opponents, cooperative members can be energized by the pursuit of a superior business in serving members and stakeholder needs better than the competition. Warbasse expressed this notion:

"Cooperation needs competition with other kinds of business, for cooperative societies do not engage in competition with one another except for excellence” (15).

Cooperatives contribute to a mixed economy and a pluralist society. This ideal was central to Warbasse’s thinking and has had a recent and comprehensive articulation by Gar Alperovitz (see reference). If the public does not want more business concentration and social polarization, then the ideas of Warbasse and Alperovitz will be welcomed.

Final Thoughts

There is significant literature on how cooperatives improve society and the economy. There are also many forward-looking works on building a cooperative commonwealth or at least establishing a much larger share of the market and of membership in society. This literature provides arguments against dividing people for political gain. Cooperation as a Way of Peace is unique in its sole focus on countering this type of manipulation. Warbasse’s book was influenced by what he experienced during the 1920s-30s as president of CLUSA and from observing the decline of democratic governments. It is insightful for our times.

References

Alperovitz, Gar (2017) Principles of a Pluralist Commonwealth. The Democracy Collaborative.

Buruma, Ian (2003) “Revolution from Above,” The New York Review of Books, Volume 50, Number 7.

International Cooperative Alliance (2025) https://ica.coop/en/whats-co-op/co-operative-identity-values-principles.

Lilla, Mark (2004) “The Closing of the Straussian Mind,” The New York Review of Books, Volume 51, Number 17.

Lindenfeld, Frank (2012) “The Cooperative Commonwealth: An Alternative to Corporate Capitalism and State Socialism,” GEO, August 23.

Rudolph, von Moritz (2025) “Leo Strauss: Der Philosoph des 21. Jahrhunderts,” Philosophie Magazin, Number 4.

Tammi, Jennifer E. (2012) Minding Our Own Business: Community, Consumers and Cooperation, PhD Dissertation, Columbia University.

Warbasse, James P. (1939) Cooperation as a Way of Peace, Harper & Brothers.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Peter_Warbasse.