State and transforming institutional logics: the emergence and demise of Ottoman cooperatives as hybrid organizational forms, 1861–1888

Abstract

This study demonstrates the emergence, subsequent diffusion, and early demise of Ottoman agricultural credit cooperatives, called Memleket Sandiks (OMSs), as they represent unique hybrid forms that blend state, community, and market logics in a single organizational configuration. The study narrates how changes in the Ottoman Empire’s institutional order during the Tanzimat era enabled conditions that led to the emergence of OMSs. Subsequently, the practices of the form transformed, especially after the Russian-Ottoman War, concomitant with further changes in Ottoman society’s institutional order. Although OMSs initially enjoyed legitimacy granted by the Ottoman State, the shift towards dominating state logic in the Hamidian era led to the erosion of practices animated by market and community logics. The form was discontinued as the increasingly autocratic state levied taxes and preyed upon the accumulated surplus, which disabled agglomerative capacity of sandiks and diminished the solidarity among cooperative members.