Cooperative Definition
A cooperative (also co-operative or co-op) comprises a legal entity owned by its members, with no passive shareholders. Unlike a union, a cooperative may assign different numbers of votes to different members; typically a cooperative is governed proportionally according to each member's level of economic interest in the cooperative. However, many cooperatives maintain a strict "one member, one vote" policy -- one of the Rochdale rules -- to avoid the concentration of control by an elite. Cooperatives may be generally classified as either consumer or producer cooperatives, depending on their function.