This state-of-the-art, medical facility is part of Hospital Barcelona, Spain, which is democratically governed by co-operatives. Scias co-operative, integrated in the Espriu Foundation, governs Hospital Barcelona through an Advisory Board made up of 15 members. Of those 15, 12 represent 166 000 user members and 3 represent 800 worker members.

Openness, transparency and accountability are the watchwords of good democratic governance. Agendas and minutes of meetings of elected committees and boards should be made available to members, online if possible where co-operatives have a presence on the internet.

Commercial sensitivity, regulatory requirements and respect for the privacy of employee records will inevitably place limitations on openness. However, within such limitations co-operatives should ensure that members have an opportunity to discuss and hold the board accountable for key commercial decisions. Where there are sound reasons for keeping matters confidential from the sovereign body of members the reasons for doing so must always be explained and justified to the members.

In the tradition of the Co-operative Pioneers, elected representatives should make available regular statements of account, financial reports and 'state of business' performance reports to members, presented in a way that is accessible to members with no formal financial training. Elected representatives should also regularly, at General Assemblies and other members' meetings, report and account to the membership for their work and actions as elected representatives. Agendas and other information for general assembly meetings should be produced in advance and on time, as required by a co-operative's rules and by-laws, so that members have time to consider matters to be discussed.

Democratic member control is a key differentiating characteristic of co-operatives in comparison to investor or shareholder-owned businesses. A second key characteristic is that their member-owners have a non-speculative stake in the business enterprise run by the co-operative. Co-operatives should aspire to the best, open, transparent, and accountable democratic practice. Each co-operative's democratic practices should be subject to diligent critical assessment, which may be achieved through co-operative specific audits.