Co-ops were always intended to be democratic organizations. In fact, many co-ops have failed after they moved away from some of the basic principles of democracy. Remember that ownership of a regular corporation is not democratic. It is not "one owner, one vote", it is "one share, one vote." Thus, a single person can control the corporation if he/she owns enough shares. In a co-op, no member has more than one vote. Also, you typically cannot give your vote to another member via a proxy. This restriction is needed to prevent centralized pockets of decision making power. Even if you are the person that organizes this co-op, you have no more say in basic policy matters of the co-op than the person who paid a membership fee yesterday. 

This is a tough one. Americans like to think of themselves as a very democratic people. However, the truth of the matter is that democracy is not practiced on a daily basis by most Americans.