"Co-operatives are democratic organisations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting their policies and making decisions." The defining characteristic of a democratic organisation is that its members are the ultimate authority. This sentence emphasises that members ultimately control their co-operative. It also stresses that they do so actively in a democratic manner, through having the right to vote on key strategic policy decisions and to participate in electing the representatives who control their co-operative's day-to-day business activities. The distinction between what are key strategic policy decisions and what decisions are delegated to the elected board is for each co-operative to decide.

"Men and women serving as elected representatives are accountable to the membership." This sentence reminds elected representatives that they hold their elected office in trust for the immediate and long-term benefit of members. Co-operatives do not 'belong' to elected officials any more than they 'belong' to the executives and employees who report to these officials. Co-operatives are jointly owned by their members and all elected officials are accountable for their actions to the membership, at election time and throughout their mandate.

"In primary co-operatives members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote)." This phrase describes the customary rules for voting in primary co-operatives. In 1995 when the Principles were last reformulated, most primary co-operatives had a single homogenous group of members. In these co-operatives the rule for equal voting rights, one member, one vote, is self-evident. In multi-stakeholder or hybrid primary co-operatives different voting systems may, for good reason, need to apply.

"And co-operatives at other levels are also organised in a democratic manner". The statement on voting at other than the primary co-operative level is open-ended because co-operative movements themselves are best able to define what is democratic in a given circumstance. This phrase recognises that in many secondary and tertiary co-operatives, systems for proportional voting have been adopted to reflect the diversity of interest, the size of memberships in associated member co-operatives and the commitment among the co-operatives involved in them. The diversity of secondary and tertiary co-operative organisations is such that the principle is not prescriptive, save that they should be "organised in a democratic manner". Such arrangements should be reviewed periodically to ensure that they remain fit for their democratic purpose. It is usually unsatisfactory if the smallest co-operatives in such arrangements have so little influence that they feel they are disenfranchised.