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Industrial Cooperatives in Poland. Some of the Economic Problems of Ownership.
Cooperative ownership has certain specific traits, which permit it to function under different socio-economic systems. One of them is that ownership of cooperative property is limited to certain socio-professional groups. But cooperative ownership must be adapted to the framework defined by the social system and rules of ownership in practice. This constitutes another of its specific traits.
However, the problem is that adaptation must not supplant the fundamentals of cooperative association. In this article Grosfeld closely examines the economic content of ownership in the light of Polish industrial cooperatives.
In effect only an analysis of the process of ownership in the broad sens of the term can permit us to see to what extent economic practices coincide with theoretical concepts. Particular emphasis is placed on distribution of the economic excess, which created by collective ownership^ is considered by the author as the principal element of the economic content of ownership.
The freedom of Polish cooperatives, severely restricted during the period 1950-1955, when priority was given to state heavy industry, was enlarged in 1956-1957. However, during the period from 1957 to 1970, the anticipated changes were not forthcoming; they would have engendered more effective management of the industrial cooperatives by endowing them with new powers or by reinforcing the existing ones and by preventing the loss of their autonomous specificity.
In Poland the economic excess from the industrial cooperatives is subject to heavy taxation which leaves only a relatively small sum for redistribution within the cooperative. The distribution of this sum is determined by the management of the cooperative in collaboration with state fiscal authorities, whose tutelage reduces the cooperative's freedom of action even more. The net benefits distributed directly among the members of the cooperative are particularly insignifiant, as well as the sums destined to collective consumption by the members of the cooperative and their families. Property utilization in Polish industrial cooperatives is only partial and this corresponds to the secondary role attributed to the cooperative sector in the development of a planned economy.

Friday's Water : Water Rights and Social Hierarchy in Sharqiya

Water ownership, like that of land, is a matter of private property: However, in so far as land and water rights are not inseparably linked, water ownership remains distinct. Access to irrigation water either derives from permanently owned water rights, or is bought on a basis of weekly watering periods, sold by auction of Fridays. Permanent water owners and «waterless» farmers are the two groups which co-exist in the village communities of Sharqiya (oasis of the Sultanate of Oman). This article attempts to answer the following question : in what way does the history of these communities and their african migrations contribute to an understanding of their present-day hierarchical organisation ? The ownership of water towers by the falaj, a village institution charged with managing the irrigation network and the water credit system are specific to Oman. By virtue of the falaj's rights, all community members can have access to water. By ensuring a certain equilibrium in the distribution of water, the falaj has been able to maintain the community's cohesion throughout the vicissitudes of history.