Cooperatives: la fin d'une forme institutionnelle?

During the post-war boom years, the agricultural co-operation distinguished itself from the cooperatives of other sectors by developing into an institutional form of monopolistic competition serving small agricultural businesses. Indeed, the agricultural co-operation has all the characteristics of an institution (a social legitimacy defined by its mission to modernize and its capacity to direct its agents behavior). This article provide an historical context for this institutional structure. In the economic arena following the three decades of post-war boom, the political strategies designed to shape economic operations became less central. Consequently, the co-operation would be called upon to continue as a legal organization, but at the cost of losing its foothold as a sectorial institutional structure.