Mondragon Cooperatives and the Utopian Legacy: Economic Democracy in Global Capitalism

Abstract Mondragon’s worker-owned-and-governed cooperatives are rooted in the socialist utopian tradition of envisioning alternative economic organizations designed to promote worker well-being, workplace democracy, and community embeddedness. For many years, they have challenged capitalist logic and hierarchical power structures while remaining economically viable and democratically governed, countering the predictions of degeneration theories. However, recent transformation of Mondragon’s largest industrial cooperatives into multinational coopitalist hybrids, maintaining a cooperative core of worker-members while operating capitalist subsidiaries with wage workers lacking membership rights, pose risks to their democratic structures. This paradox highlights the tension between economic survival in global capitalism and cooperative identity. By examining Mondragon’s trajectory, the paper questions whether internationalization can coexist with economic democracy or whether global expansion inevitably compromises cooperative principles, forcing adaptation to market-driven imperatives. Understanding these tensions is crucial for the future of economic democracy and the development of sustainable alternative organizations.