Abstract While in many European countries co-operative entrepreneurship manages to fulfill its economic and social functions successfully, in Croatia a large majority of almost 1200 registered co-operatives struggle hard to accomplish in demanding market conditions while sustaining their social dimension and few succeed. Only 19% of co-operatives accounted for 96% of overall income earned by Croatian co-operatives in 2015. We critically examine obstacles related to external legal, policy, infrastructural and other conditions that are either insufficient, completely missing or, if existent, adversely affect co-operatives. The obstacles were indicated by co-operatives themselves in a qualitative research project conducted between September 2017 and March 2018. We offer two possible explanations for the existence of the obstacles: one concerning immaturity of the Croatian institutional system, the other related to cronyism pervading the system. We see bottom-up integration of the co-operative sector, based on the principle of co-operation among co-operatives, as the best way of moving forward.

中文翻译：

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克罗地亚合作社的复兴故事：克服外部障碍

摘要尽管在许多欧洲国家中，合作社企业家精神设法成功地履行其经济和社会职能，但在克罗地亚，近1200个注册合作社中的绝大多数在艰苦的市场条件下努力奋斗，同时又要维持其社会规模，却很少成功。在2015年，只有19％的合作社占了克罗地亚合作社总收入的96％。我们严格审查与外部法律，政策，基础设施和其他情况相关的障碍，这些障碍既不充分，完全缺失，或者如果存在，对合作社产生不利影响。合作社自己在2017年9月至2018年3月进行的定性研究项目中指出了这些障碍。对于障碍的存在，我们提供两种可能的解释：一个问题涉及克罗地亚体制体系的不成熟，另一个问题涉及整个体系的裙带关系。我们认为，基于合作社之间合作的原则，合作社部门的自下而上的整合是前进的最佳方式。