Alternatives For Public Sector Reform: Co-operatives & the ASD Debate

Abstract

Local, non-governmental contractors may well outperform the bureaucrats in service delivery, assuming communities have social capital adequate to the job. What kind of business offers efficiency and accountability while building civic engagement and capacity? The co-op has some important features that recommend it as an alternative service delivery (ASD) option, one that has significant advantages over private sector approaches. This is a good follow-up to the Restakis article on the Emilian model (Restakis, 2002), helping set part of the Canadian context for consideration of how this work might be advanced here.