Introduction

The book strives to capture the past and current developments, and the future status of the cooperative movements in two different countries: Australia and Italy. It is the result of a three-year research collaborative project titled Advancing the Co-operative Movement in Australia and Italy: A three years research program. The comparative character of the book poses some challenges and difficulties since the book compares two countries that show markedly different development patterns and institutional systems both in terms of corporate law and in terms of system of industrial relations. The legal framework, both general and specific to co-operatives, for the two countries is remarkably different. Australia has a common law tradition that makes it similar to other countries such as the UK and the US which are characterized by notable limitation of specific legislation for cooperative firms. Italy represents instead one of the best civil law examples of development of the cooperative legislation. As Australia and Italy have witnessed different degrees of creation, diffusion and disappearance of cooperative firms, very different dimensions and patterns of development of co-operatives characterize these two countries. Co-operatives represent a more significant part of economic and social life in Italy than Australia and a fundamental issue in the book concerns the enquiry into the reasons for these cultural and social differences, and for the different scale of the phenomenon. The answers given in the different chapters provide general insights for the field of co-operative studies.