From State Mandate to Village Prosperity: Critical Policy Recipes for a Successful Government-Driven Rural Cooperative Movement

This journal discusses the revival of village cooperatives initiated by the government as an instrument for poverty alleviation and strengthening the rural economy. Drawing from the experiences of various developing countries, this study highlights the paradox of state-mandated cooperatives: government intervention is often needed to provide capital, regulation, and market access, but it can fail if it neglects community autonomy and ownership. Through a literature review from 2019–2026, this study identifies the pillars of success for village cooperatives, namely legal certainty, adaptive government roles, strengthening human resource capacity, access to financing and markets, participatory governance, and digital support. The implication is that the success of village cooperatives cannot be measured solely by the number of institutions formed, but by their ability to transform into an economic movement owned and managed by the community sustainably.