Making Mondragón: The Growth And Dynamics Of The Worker Cooperative Complex

"I had believed that worker cooperatives reflected noble ideals but had little prospect for long-term survival and growth in modern industrialized economies," writes a leading American sociologist, William Whyte. Why a complex of enterprises in the Basque part of Spain in the wake of the Civil War has caused him to think otherwise is the burden of this report. Inevitably there is much detail about organization and procedure, but the authors keep clearly in focus the problems of balancing efficiency and ideals, autonomy and solidarity, risk and stability, financial liquidity and job security. It makes an interesting story, but not one that encourages generalizations.