The Institutional Analysis Of The Development And Evolution Of Western Workers' Cooperatives Under Globalization

In 1844,the successful practice of the Rochdale Eguitable Pioneers and the rapid dissemination of its principles promoted the flourishing development of the Western Worker Cooperative Movement.In 1956,a worker cooperative named Ulgor was born in the Basque country of Spain.Subsequently,it quickly developed and grew into the world's largest worker cooperative,the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation.The successful practice of Mondragon makes it an object of learning for other worker cooperatives.Therefore,its institutional characteristics are the most representative among the worker cooperatives in the world.In 1990,Mondragon started an international expansion strategy and brought about a series of institutional changes in cooperatives.This reform mainly includes three points: First,a large number of subsidiary companies of the cooperative;Second,create a new organization structure——mixed cooperatives;Third,the complexity of membership qualifications of cooperatives.Western scholars generally believe that the internationalization of Mondragon is a variation and degradation of the worker cooperatives.It is a betrayal of the spirit of cooperation.Some scholars who hold a capitalist view even believe that the worker cooperatives will eventually die.However,there are also Western scholars who believe that cooperatives will not mutate because they will transform cooperatives' subsidiaries.Because Western scholars' analysis of Mundragon is more of a description of facts,it does not delve into the deep dynamics that reveal its institutional changes.Therefore,based on the Marx's institutional economics,we have established the analysis framework of “Internationalization of production—socialization of property rights—socialization of management and distribution” to point out the institutional transformation of Mondragon under the expansion of internationalization.It is not the dissimilation of cooperatives to capitalist enterprises,nor the betrayal of cooperatives,but the adaptive adjustment of the socialization of property rights,management,and distribution of worker cooperatives in response to the internal demands of production socialization under the trend of globalization.It is a positive change in the institutional arrangements of contemporary worker cooperatives.Finally,we pointed out that this positive change of the contemporary worker cooperatives is the common development trend of the cooperation movement.It is not a unique change of the worker cooperatives,western agricultural cooperatives have similar changes.Therefore,it can also provide important inspiration for the development of China's farmers' professional cooperatives and various cooperative economic organizations.For this reason,the first chapter introduces the background,significance,ideas of this article as well as the difficulties and innovations in this article.The second chapter first introduces the historical process of the emergence and development of western cooperatives.The emergence,development,and transformation of worker cooperatives are also based on the principles of Western cooperatives.Therefore,it is necessary to first clarify the process of the development of cooperatives' principles.Afterwards,we read and sort out the literature on this subject at home and abroad,especially the collation and collection of relevant empirical data on the development of cooperatives after the international expansion of Mondragon in 1990 in Western academic circles.The third chapter elaborates the emergence,development and evolution of Mondragon,and in particular details the new features that Mondragon demonstrated during the period of global expansion.Then it further reveals the essence of the emergence,development,and evolution of Mondragon,that is,their globalization changes,on the one hand,are influenced by the changes in the direction of the development of the worker cooperative movement in the globalization,and on the other are the internal driving forces of production socialization.But in essence it is the result of the internal drive of production socialization.In the fourth chapter,this paper first compares Marxist institutional economics and new institutional economics to the interpretation of property rights,and explains why the property rights theory of new institutional economics cannot be adopted.Subsequently,introduced the basic model of the property rights system before the international expansion of Mondragon,and with the advancement of internationalization,what changes have taken place in the property rights model after the internationalization of change,and elaborated the nature of this change by detail the dynamic mechanism behind.In the fifth and sixth chapter,based on the analysis logic of the foureth chapter,analyze the basic model and changes of the management system and distribution system before and after the change of the internationalization of Mondragon.Finally,in conjunction with the analysis of the changes in the system before and after the expansion of Mondragon,Mondragon evaluates the new property rights,management,and distribution system,and shows that the worker cooperatives are a change in the context of globalization.The adaptation to the socialization of production is the adaptive adjustment of socialization,management,and distribution socialization conducted by cooperatives,it's a positive change of worker cooperatove.The development trend of cooperatives in the direction of socialization is not the unique performance of the worker cooperatives,but the future development trend of the contemporary Western cooperative movement.It has important implications and reference value for the future development of China's farmers' professional cooperatives and various cooperative economic organizations.