合作社的本质规定与政策反思

The Essence of Cooperatives and Policy Reflection

围绕农民专业合作社的真假之争,本文审慎地讨论了合作社的本质规定,并基于此探讨了农民专业合作社在现实发展中存在的主要问题。本文梳理了学界关于合作社本质规定的主流看法,指出了既有观点在论证方式上的缺陷,继而认为如果要给一个组织冠以合作社的名称,并使该组织名副其实,就必须考虑合作社原则的历史传承性。一个名为“合作社”的组织,其实际类型可能有四种,而中国现实中的农民专业合作社绝大多数都不属于经典意义上的合作社,要判断它们是否是新型合作社,需要探讨合作社演化的边界。基于企业产权理论,本文分别讨论了“盈余按惠顾额返还”“成员民主控制”两大原则是否可以突破,以及突破的底线。本文还分析了“合作社的本质规定是什么”与“判定现实中的合作社是不是一个真正的合作社”这两个问题的联系和区别。在此基础上,本文用“只要盈余按惠顾额返还的比例超过50%就算是真正意义上的合作社”这一标准,重新检视了中国现实中农民专业合作社的性质,得出“中国现实中绝大多数农民专业合作社的合作社元素都较弱甚至缺失”的结论。本文认为,现有政策扶持以物资支持为主是合作社名不副实的根本成因;解决合作社名不副实问题的有效途径,既不是加强对合作社的监管,也不是放宽合作社的定义域以迎合现实,而是要从根本上调整对合作社的支持政策,即由物资支持转向制度建构。

Focusing on the dispute between the true and false of farmer’s specialized cooperatives,this study carefully discusses the essential characteristics of cooperatives and the major problems existing in the development of cooperatives.This study sorts out the mainstream views on the essence of cooperatives,points out the weaknesses of the existing views in the way of argumentation,and then argues that in order to give an organization the name of a cooperative,and to make the organization live up to its name,the historical inheritance of cooperative principles must be considered.There may be four actual types of an organization called a “cooperative”.However,the vast majority of farmers’ cooperatives in China are not cooperatives in a classic sense.And it is necessary to explore the boundaries of cooperative evolution to judge whether they are new types of cooperatives.Based on the theory of enterprise property rights,this study discusses whether the two principles of “return of surplus according to patronage” and “democratic control of members” can be broken through,and the bottom line of the breakthrough.It also analyzes the relationship and difference between “what is the essence of cooperatives” and “whether a cooperative is a true cooperative”.On this basis,the study re-examines the essence of cooperatives in China’s reality with the standard being stated “as long as the proportion of surplus returned according to patronage exceeds 50%,it is a true cooperative”.It is concluded that the cooperative elements of most cooperatives in China are weak or even missing.This study argues that the existing policy support is mainly in the form of material incentives,which is the fundamental reason why cooperatives do not live up to their name.As an effective way to solve this problem,it is not advisable to strengthen the supervision of cooperatives,nor to broaden the definition of cooperatives to meet the reality.Instead,it is necessary to fundamentally adjust the policies for cooperatives from material support to institutional construction.