George Melnyk (1985) has argued that the practice of Co-operation has developed through three different phases, Utopian, Movement and System. Co-operatives have shifted from small, decentralised, utopian communities which where attempting to build a new world one village at a time, to large centralised conglomerates trying to keep abreast of their private, for-profit counterparts.Despite this and other critiques there remains an implicit and overarching set of values expressed by the Co-operative movement that Co-operatives are agents of social change. The co-operative principles are commonly thought of as the source and embodiment of these values. This thesis examines whether the Co-operative movements own expression of its ideology, as expressed by the International Co-operative Alliance three reviews and declarations of the Co-operative Principles, has followed this same shift from social transformation to organisational survival.