Professional paper
Co-operative Laws in Croatia: Development and Problems of Legislation Concerning the Agricultural Co-operatives
Anton Matijašević
; Croatian Agricultural Co-operative Association, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The author analyzes the legislation regulating the registration, activities and structure of co-operatives, primarily the agricultural
ones, in Croatia. The analysis includes all the laws concerning the
matter, starting with the first law passed in 1873 to the 1875 Trade
Law, and the Law passed during the period of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, through all the laws passed in between 1945 and 1990,
to the 1996 Law on co-operatives of the Republic of Croatia including
its amendments dating from 2002. The analysis revealed a great similarity between the definition of co-operative in the Austro Hungarian Monarchy legislation and the Law on co-operatives of the
independent Republic of Croatia passed in 1995. This is due to the
fact that the agricultural structure in this part of Europe is analogous,
i.e. that the main organizational form of agricultural production, following the abolition of serfdom and the development of the
market economy in Western, Central, Southern and Eastern Europe,
consists of peasant's family holdings involved in the farming, rural
handicrafts and the related activities, on their own estates and basically with the family itself as the working force. Different legislators have defined the co-operative in an almost the same way,
as a voluntary organization or enterprise, whose members, based
on the principle of mutual assistance, are thriving to develop and
advance their own holdings. Man and his interest are a priority. The
co-operative is not an association of capital but an association of
people, who manage the co-operative business and estate on the
principles of democracy. The analysis of regulations from the socialist period between 1945-1990 shows that the co-operative was
an instrument servicing the state interests and not the interests of
its own members. This is obvious from the standardized goals among
which the first one was the nationalization i.e. the socialization of the
agriculture (following the breakdown of its concept and the campaign
of collectivization in 1953). Nevertheless, after 1974 and the reform,
the co-operatives became an important economy subject. In his
article the author has given special attention to the current Law on
co-operatives of the Republic of Croatia, as well as the recommendations for the amendments of the future legislation on
co-operatives. The aim of the 1995 Law was to preserve the co-operatives. Although this goal was achieved, the co-operative
owners have mainly become co-operative employees with many
problems in the transformation of co-operatives. New legislation on
co-operatives and other measures of economy policy should provide
quality incentives for the co-operatives in Croatia in order for them
to become more competitive.
Keywords
agricultural co-operative; co-operative; legislation on co-operatives; co-operative members; economy; agriculture
Hrčak ID:
32877
URI
Publication date:
4.2.2009.
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