ROCHDALE PRINCIPLES - THE CATALYST FOR THE FUNCTIONING AND INDIVIDUALIZATION OF COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES

. Since their first appearance, cooperatives have proved to be a viable alternative to promoting the legitimate interests of disadvantaged groups of the population, such as rural ones, refugees, immigrants, the unemployed, the elderly or the disabled, who have discovered in cooperatives the means needed to improve their own material situation. The founders of cooperative society formulated some principles of activity for the administration of the cooperative. Today these principles are known as the famous Rochdale Principles, which have so far been the basis for the development and expansion of the global cooperative movement, becoming, in fact, the prototype of cooperative societies.


Introduction
The Cooperative Society concept was first formulated by George Holyoke in the middle of the 19th century He drew attention to two characteristics specific to cooperatives [Pajitnov K., 2017]: 1. lack of profit as the main purpose of their activity; 2. distribution of profits on the basis of the economic ownership of the members of the company in its business.
In particular, these specific characteristics have also distinguished cooperatives from other subjects of entrepreneurship. Knowing the failed attempts in the past, the founders of this cooperative society formulated some principles of activity for the administration of the cooperative.

Discussion and materials
Today these principles are known as the famous Rochdale Principles, which have so far been the basis for the development and expansion of the global cooperative movement, becoming, in fact, the prototype of cooperative societies.
The setting up of this cooperative societies was due to the Industrial Revolution, which introduced the mechanization into the production at large. The mechanization in turn reduces the amount of wage gains and even the reduction of workers' jobs, which in the end causes poverty.
In order to minimize this negative phenomenon, these 28 textile workers decided to join efforts to set up their own shop where food products could not be bought by them in ordinary shops, the reason being their high costs.
The Cooperative's activity based on the Rochdale Principles has produced a phenomenal, successful result, and also generated dividends. Only in a period of four months cooperative shop it accumulated profits in the amount of 1 pound sterling, to the investment of 28 pounds (1 pound sterling of that period would constitute in the 20s of the XXI century the equivalent of about 127 US dollars) [Brett F., 1994], representing a fairly good result in entrepreneurial activity.
On December 21, 1844 the store started its activity with a list of minimum products: butter, sugar, flour, oat flakes, a few candles. Within three months, the list of products has been extended and the store is then known as a supplier of high quality, unaltered products. By 1900, the British co-operation movement has increased to 1439 cooperatives covering almost all areas of the United Kingdom.

Rochdale Principles of Cooperation
The current versions of the 7 Rochdale Principles of Cooperation were formally adopted by the International Co-operative Alliance (International Co-

Membership is voluntary and opencooperatives are voluntary
organizations, open to all people who are able to use their services and who wants to accept their responsibilities, without discrimination of gender, social, racial, political or religious nature.

Education, training and informationcooperatives offer education and
training to their members, elected officials, managers and employees so that they can contribute effectively to the development of the cooperative. They shall inform the general public, in particular young people and opinion leaders, of the nature and benefits of the cooperation.

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245 effectively and strengthen the cooperative movement by working with local, national, regional and international structures. 7. Concern for the communitycooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities, promoting policies approved by their members.
On the basis of these Rochdale Principles of Cooperation, cooperatives have been formed gradually over more than 140 years by the merger of many independant retail companies, as well as wholesale companies and federations.

In 1863, twenty years after the Cooperative Rochdale Societz of Equitable
Pioneers was successfully founded, more than 300 cooperatives were found in northern England in the municipalities of Yorkshire and Lancashire.

Functional features of Cooperative societies
An analysis of scientific literature shows that, generally, the cooperative movement finds its expression through four functional features: 1. flexibility or ability to adapt to the needs of others; 2. considering or willing to take into account the needs and feelings of others; 3. exchange of information; 4. joint problem solving.
The first two features are considered to be of an emotional nature, as they relate more to the feeling and the latter two more to the cognitive nature (knowledge), as they relate to a rationalization effort.

Conclusion
So, as we have seen, Europe is the cradle of cooperative action. In many EU Member States, cooperatives have a significant market share in basic economic sectors, especially in the primary and tertiary sectors.

The Commission of the European Union has published a Communication on the promotion of cooperatives in Europe to the European Parliament, the European
Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, informing that more than 300 thousand cooperatives with more than 140 million members are in the Member States of the European Union [CEC, 2004].
At present, the market share of the agricultural cooperative is 83% in Norway, 79% in Finland, 55% in Italy.
In the forestry sector cooperatives hold 60% of the market in Sweden and 31% of the market in Finland. In the tertiary system, cooperatives have over 50% of the banking market in France, 35% of Finland, 31% of Austria and 21% of Germany.

Conclusions
Currently, France leads in terms of the number of people who have cooperative membership, with more than 26 million members of French cooperative enterprises, compared to Germany (22,2 million).), Nederland (16,9 million), United Kingdom (14,9 million) and Italy (12,6 million).
At the moment, the largest European cooperative is Mondragon Corporacion (it consists of 98 cooperatives, 143 branches, 8 local foundations, an internal network covering 10 states and 7 international services, divided into four areas: finance, industry, distribution and education, with over 80 thousand employees.) in Spain, which includes companies from various sectors of the economy, such as: mechanical engineering, the automotive industry, household appliances, the construction industry, retail (supermarket network), banks and insurance companies.