{"id":442,"date":"2015-06-24T12:20:32","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T10:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/?p=442"},"modified":"2015-06-30T17:07:02","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T15:07:02","slug":"electing-representatives-of-cooperatives-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/electing-representatives-of-cooperatives-online","title":{"rendered":"Electing representatives of cooperatives online"},"content":{"rendered":"

The origins of the idea of the cooperative date as far back as the 19th century. The cooperative principle, however, is just as current as ever. Democratic processes have been closely tied to cooperative participation since day one. Online elections can thus carry cooperative democracy into the 21st century.<\/p>\n

Cooperative participation<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

“The cooperative notion is just as brand new today as it was 150 years ago. It had to be invented if it wasn’t invented already.” (Roman Herzog, former President of the Federal Republic of Germany)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The idea of a cooperative arose from an emergency situation in the early stages of industrialisation in the mid-19th century. At the time petty traders, craftspeople and peasants were confronted with the problem that they were largely being excluded from loans by the banks, as they almost always focused on financing industrial firms.<\/p>\n

\"Friedrich<\/a>

Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen (1818 – 1888)<\/p><\/div>\n

Those seeking loans could only jointly resolve this issue. They did this by joining together and supporting each other with financing, making them altogether creditable. The improvement in the economic situation resulted in the cooperative’s members, which consisted of individuals, compiling their power.<\/p>\n

\n

“Many can achieve what the individual cannot.” (Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The peculiarity of membership in a cooperative is that the members are proprietors, performance partners and decision makers in a personal union. For this reason, among the rights granted by membership is the right to co-administration (such as the right to vote and express one’s opinion).<\/p>\n

Online voting: Co-op representation elections of the 21st century<\/strong><\/p>\n

Due to their drastically growing membership numbers, many cooperatives in the 20th century began to introduce representative meetings, in which the members were vicariously present through representatives. In the past, the postal ballot procedure was frequently used for the necessary representative elections. Yet postal votes generate high administrative expenses and costs: postal ballot documents need to be printed, shipped, returned and manually counted.<\/p>\n

An online election reduces the costs for electoral organisation to a minimum. Central tasks, such as managing the electoral register, printing and shipping voter information, conducting the vote and counting the ballots can be done digitally at the push of a button.<\/p>\n

Online votes also reduce the barriers that exist with postal votes, and thereby consider the needs of the members. For instance, during the online representative election they can comfortably cast their vote at any time. While online voters can also be more strongly motivated to partake in the vote. This reinforces the members’ feelings of being a part of these important decisions. The feeling of “we”, of being an important part of the co-op, is strengthened.<\/p>\n

Modern cooperatives vote online<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since the amendment of the German Cooperative Law in 2006, all cooperatives may conduct their elections online, be they a credit cooperative, a housing cooperative, a purchasing association, an agricultural cooperative or any other form of cooperative association. The online voting system POLYAS ensures that the results of the online election are secure and legally binding.<\/p>\n

Some co-ops are already conducting their representative elections through the online voting system POLYAS. Examples of this for credit cooperatives include the PSD Bank Westfalen-Lippe, and for housing cooperatives the representative election of the GE-WO, Oberhausen, which will be conducted through POLYAS once more this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The origins of the idea of the cooperative date as far back as the 19th century. The cooperative principle, however, is just as current as ever. Democratic processes have been closely tied to cooperative participation since day one. Online elections can thus carry cooperative democracy into the 21st century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","ub_ctt_via":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[37,41],"tags":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Genossenschaft_Vertreterwahl_online1.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Anna-Maria Palzkill","author_link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/author\/a-palzkillpolyas-de"},"yoast_head":"\nElecting representatives of cooperatives online - POLYAS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/electing-representatives-of-cooperatives-online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Electing representatives of cooperatives online - POLYAS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The origins of the idea of the cooperative date as far back as the 19th century. 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Representative and council elections are integral aspects of cooperatives. It's precisely such displays of democratic participation which makes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Digital Democracy"","img":{"alt_text":"Winning Candidates in Cooperatives' Election organization","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/genossenschaften_digitale_Mitbestimmung-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4284,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/electoral-research\/cooperatives-basics","url_meta":{"origin":442,"position":1},"title":"What you need to know about Cooperatives","date":"14\/02\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In our first blog series on cooperatives, we will introduce you to what they are and the different forms they take. Read on to learn more. A cooperative (also known as co-operative or co-op) is a business that is owned by its members. These members can be normal people, other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electoral research"","img":{"alt_text":"Winning Candidates in Cooperatives' Election organization","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/genossenschaften_digitale_Mitbestimmung-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3436,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/events\/polyas-canada-fair-cooperatives","url_meta":{"origin":442,"position":2},"title":"POLYAS goes Canada","date":"07\/10\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Look like we are going to have to brush up on our French and don our thickest winter jackets, because POLYAS is going to Quebec. More specifically, we will be heading to the International Summit of Cooperatives as part of our efforts to expand globally. From October 11th-13th, come visit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","img":{"alt_text":"Polyas Goes Canada","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/polyas_canada_fair.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5297,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/electoral-research\/history-credit-unions","url_meta":{"origin":442,"position":3},"title":"History of Credit Unions in North America","date":"12\/07\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The history of credit unions depicts an important change in financial and cooperative services. In the 19th century, credit unions started to offer affordable banking and loan services to customers\u00a0and paved the way for a\u00a0fairer financial market. 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Provide enough information to encourage\u00a0candidates In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election Management"","img":{"alt_text":"Encourage Candidates for your next board election","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Cooperative_board_elections.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4352,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/electoral-research\/cooperatives-history","url_meta":{"origin":442,"position":5},"title":"History of Cooperatives","date":"23\/02\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here you can read all about the history of cooperatives, why they became a common business practice and some of the interesting stories behind their development in the 19th and 20th centuries. Read on to learn more! History of Cooperatives: the early years Cooperatives are best understood as groups of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electoral research"","img":{"alt_text":"Read more about successful election management in associations","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Electoral_Research.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":479,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442\/revisions\/479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}