Abstract
Despite the Brazilian legal framework recognizing since 1932 the premises of the International Cooperative Alliance, with the admission of cooperative principles since 1971 with Act 5.764, laws and court decisions do not understand the proper aspects of cooperative societies, weakening the cooperative identity in the perception of the people. Part of this problem occurs because, under the pressure of competition, the current attempt to boost Brazilian cooperativism involves introducing law projects, updates, and regulations that ignore cooperative identity in favor of corporate structures and removes the social and cultural objectives of the jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise. In practice, we are facing an evident process of companization in Brazilian cooperative law, confirming the perceptions of Professor Hagen Henrÿ. Therefore, the objective of this contribution is to demonstrate the evolution of this process, highlighting laws, projects, and regulations that raise doubts about the future of Cooperativism and Cooperative Law in Brazil. We want to give voice to Hagen Henrÿ in defense of a cooperative law that understands and protects the cooperativism around the world.
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Notes
- 1.
Pinheiro (2008).
- 2.
Cracogna et al. (2013).
- 3.
Perius (2001).
- 4.
Nascimento (1989).
- 5.
Brasil (1988).
- 6.
OCB (2019).
- 7.
Cracogna et al. (2013)
- 8.
This term is used for a type of medical work cooperative that is also a health insurance operator. In Brazil, these cooperatives are regulated and supervised by the National Supplementary Health Agency (Agência Nacional de Saúde Complementar—ANS).
- 9.
SOUZA (2017).
- 10.
Assumpção (2015).
- 11.
OCB (2019).
- 12.
Assumpção (2015).
- 13.
Miranda (2013).
- 14.
Under Brazilian law (Act No. 4,565/1964), it is the responsibility of the National Monetary Council to regulate the Brazilian financial system, where credit cooperatives are located. The Central Bank of Brazil has the competence to supervise and guide the operation of these financial institutions.
- 15.
Ventura et al. (2009).
- 16.
Here, the author makes an alert justified in the typical problems of translations. In studies dealing with the representation of members in executive bodies, such as Hagen (2012a) and Münker and Mateus (2011), they are called merely Board of Directors, defined as Hagen (2012a, p. 86) “As the executive organ/body of the cooperative, the board of directors must function according to precise legal rules.” In Brazil, however, the present study will show that the Board of Directors is divided into manuals and the law into two specific bodies. The first is the representative body of the members, elected at a general meeting between them, responsible for the strategic direction of the Cooperative, which the author will call Administrative Council. The second body is the Board of Directors, who deals directly with the management of the cooperative. Here, the author will refer Board of Directors or simply Directors. In any case, the reading of this article will make clear this division, whose nomenclature is used by the author as a methodological approach.
- 17.
Mamede (2004).
- 18.
Souza (2017).
- 19.
To understand its terms, Henrÿ (2012a, p. 10) also explains the concept of stock company: “The term ‘stock company’ is used as a generic term designating those enterprise types which centre on invested capital.”
- 20.
Henrÿ (2018).
- 21.
Miranda (2017)
- 22.
Miranda (2017).
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de Souza, L.R. (2022). Evidence of Companization in Brazilian Cooperative Law. In: Tadjudje, W., Douvitsa, I. (eds) Perspectives on Cooperative Law. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1991-6_14
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