Platform co-op governance: deep democracy on scale

Summary

This article proposes how platform cooperatives could be governed both democratically and efficiently. After summarizing why cooperatives often struggle to implement democratic governance, it proposes separating yet establishing the right connections between the lean decision-making operational body from the feedback-giving community members as a solution that enables both focused operations as well as inclusive, trust-based, and thoughtful deliberation. Finally, it outlines how this might be done: providing the community with board representation, forum-like settings as open feedback lines, and a ‘mailbox’ for direct input by individuals. All this is envisioned to culminate in greater autonomy for the operational business, strong member voice, and a trusting and transparent relationship between the two – an intentional and clear design for the ‘how’ of democratic governance.