formation-docs/analysis/principle-maps/ica-cooperative-identity-alignment.md
ICA Cooperative Identity Alignment
Source summary
The ICA Statement is a compact organizational constitution for cooperative governance. It is especially useful because it combines democratic control, economic participation, autonomy, education, solidarity, and concern for community in a single governance identity.
Sourcing and language status
- Canonical source: https://ica.coop/en/cooperatives/cooperative-identity
- Retained text: external-formation-docs/documents/organizations/international-cooperative-alliance/statement-on-cooperative-identity.md
- Retention mode:
curated-excerpt - Language status: English public statement retained
- Translation status:
original-language-only
Alignment table
1. Dignity is inherent and unconditional
- Alignment
- implicit-alignment
- Confidence
- low
- Source provisions
- equality, equity, solidarity
- Notes
- Dignity is implied through values rather than named.
2. Essential needs should not be held hostage to avoidable scarcity
- Alignment
- implicit-alignment
- Confidence
- low
- Source provisions
- cooperative definition
- Notes
- The aim is mutual needs satisfaction, though not framed as a broad social right.
3. AI must augment agency, not replace democratic accountability
- Alignment
- implicit-alignment
- Confidence
- low
- Source provisions
- democratic member control
- Notes
- No AI language, but the governance principle is strongly relevant.
4. Power must remain accountable, legible, and reversible
- Alignment
- explicit-alignment
- Confidence
- medium
- Source provisions
- democratic member control, autonomy and independence
- Notes
- Strong overlap at organizational scale.
5. Critical systems require public-interest governance
- Alignment
- explicit-alignment
- Confidence
- medium
- Source provisions
- democratic enterprise definition, concern for community
- Notes
- Strong evidence for alternative governance models beyond shareholder primacy.
6. The gains from automation should strengthen society, not destabilize it
- Alignment
- implicit-alignment
- Confidence
- medium
- Source provisions
- member economic participation
- Notes
- Productive gains are meant to circulate through members and community.
7. Freedom requires both liberty and material stability
- Alignment
- implicit-alignment
- Confidence
- low
- Source provisions
- meeting common economic, social and cultural needs
- Notes
- Material stability is built into the cooperative purpose.
8. No class of people should become structurally excluded
- Alignment
- explicit-alignment
- Confidence
- medium
- Source provisions
- voluntary and open membership
- Notes
- Strong inclusion principle.
9. Institutions should be designed for competence and trust, not theater
- Alignment
- explicit-alignment
- Confidence
- medium
- Source provisions
- education, training and information
- Notes
- Real participation requires institutional capability and member education.
10. The future should be built in the open
- Alignment
- explicit-alignment
- Confidence
- medium
- Source provisions
- democratic member control, openness
- Notes
- Strong overlap at the organizational level.
11. Civilization depends on a functioning biosphere
- Alignment
- absent
- Confidence
- high
- Source provisions
- none in retained summary
- Notes
- Community concern is present, but ecology is not explicit here.
12. The present generation holds obligations to the future
- Alignment
- implicit-alignment
- Confidence
- low
- Source provisions
- concern for community
- Notes
- Future orientation is indirect.
13. Pluralism and self-determination are strengths, not obstacles
- Alignment
- explicit-alignment
- Confidence
- medium
- Source provisions
- autonomy and independence; open membership
- Notes
- Strong overlap.
14. Truth and evidence must be protected as public goods
- Alignment
- implicit-alignment
- Confidence
- low
- Source provisions
- education, training and information; honesty and openness
- Notes
- Some overlap, but not a full epistemic principle.
15. The circle of moral consideration must remain open
- Alignment
- absent
- Confidence
- high
- Source provisions
- none
- Notes
- No comparable principle.
16. Justice mediates between competing claims
- Alignment
- explicit-alignment
- Confidence
- medium
- Source provisions
- equality, equity, solidarity
- Notes
- Justice logic is embedded strongly in the values set.
17. Collective power must be exercised within principled constraints
- Alignment
- explicit-alignment
- Confidence
- high
- Source provisions
- democratic control, autonomy, community concern
- Notes
- Strong overlap.
Distinctive commitments and gaps
Distinctive contribution
- democratic economic governance as identity
- community concern without surrendering member control
Main absences
- ecology as a first-order principle
- rights language
- AI
- future-generations specificity
Open question
- Should Civic Blueprint draw more explicitly from cooperative identity language when describing public-interest governance alternatives under Principle 5?