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personal -- We have to start with the individual human being, with character, honesty, self-esteem and capability, will power, dignity in self-reliance, and ability to treat fellow-humans as such. Such a person is an active stakeholder in his/her own affairs instead of being dependent on others to give them aid and alms or to make their decisions for them. This is the logic behind the one-member-one-vote principle in the democratic inner dynamics of the cooperatives.

enterprises -- This person is an entrepreneur, not just a customer or employee, much less a beggar for dole-outs/alms. The real member of a real coop behaves, as any serious and responsible business owner would, is not one who would just completely entrust his/her own business to other people, even to officers of the coop. Note also that not all the personal enterprises of all members are brought into the synergy, but only those that are the common business enterprises of the members.

synergy -- Synergy, the dynamic combination of individual energies that enlarges the totality of these energies, is possible only if each participant eagerly contributing his/her own energies in a real teamwork; only those moving according to their own informed free will can be eager contributors of energy. This is why membership has to be voluntary -- cooperatives have to have members who really want to be members; not people who are merely willing, those who merely agreed to join or, worse, who simply could not refuse.

Read the articles giving the definition, descriptions, and illustrative metaphors of synergy and synergism..

social -- A cooperative cannot be a private or exclusive club, it belongs to society itself, specifically, the local community it is to be rooted in. This is why a real cooperative has to be open to welcome as members all people in the community who are qualified to avail themselves of its services. This is also why a coop has to be firmly rooted in the community for its life and viability; it is not to be merely 'concerned' about the community.

jointly-owned -- As expressed earlier, the cooperative is a synergy of personal enterprises. Thus the individual member-owners have to jointly own the cooperative, and each member is as concerned as the other members as they all have a joint stake in protecting their pooled capital and making this earn a profit margin it deserves, as supported by the community for patronage and viablility. A business owner does not have to be forced or pleaded with to patronize their jointly-owned business.

jointly-run -- Just as it is jointly owned, a cooperative should ultimately be jointly run. Otherwise, some of the responsibilities of part of the membership have to be unduly shouldered by the rest. All the most important decisions are to be voted by the real majority of all the members in the General Assembly where the members present outnumber those who are absent (not with just a legally-defensible "quorum"). In fact, only the majority of all the members, together, have the right to wield effective control over their cooperative's policies and programs. All functionaries are mandated only by that coop's own membership together and not by any other entity, like initiating government or church officials.

Three Clusters of the Seven Cooperative Principles

A. Essential Principles --

Principle 1 -- Voluntary & Open Membership. Voluntary because it has to be a real synergy of personal enterprises, with each member having real basis to be an active stakeholder. Open because this synergy is a social one, a community resource, not a private social club.

Principle 7 -- Rootedness in the Community-- it serves the community members individually and collectively in economic, political and overall human development, and the community, in turn, makes the cooperative’s business(es) socially viable.

Principle 5 -- Effective Education and Information for everyone, so all the members and the community will know well the essence, operations and benefits of the coop. Informed decision-making, along with freedom of choice, is the pillar of voluntariness.

B. Internal Principles --

Principle 2 -- Democratic Member control, not just “participatory democracy,” requires that the cooperative is jointly run by at least the simple majority of members.

Principle 3 -- Members’ Economic Participation in many forms is the actualization of the cooperative’s being jointly owned and capitalized, and therefore also jointly patronized.

C. External Principles --

Principle 4 -- Autonomy and Independence principle guarantees that the coop is jointly run by its members, and controlled only by its members, free from any strong influence from government, from benefactors and even from larger cooperatives.

Principle 6 -- Cooperation Among Cooperatives is a practice that each coop owes to the community, considering the magnification effect of the principle of synergism. There are many forms of such cooperation among cooperatives, and one such form is voluntarily forming and joining unions and federations among themselves and, as member-coops, jointly owning and controlling these unions and federations fully and never being controlled by these larger formations.