Cooperatives and continuity
Spain
Competing with worker participation
MONDRAGON
What the evidence shows
The group's own report for 2025 documents economic activity and employment at substantial scale. These records describe the organisation; they do not isolate how many jobs would exist without the cooperative model or represent the whole Spanish economy. [2]
The group brings together cooperative businesses and structures for training, finance and support. Worker participation in ownership and governance coexists with market activity and the need to sustain each business. [1][2]
Produce and compete in the market
Connect training and support across cooperatives
Reinvest and report to participants
Costs and delivery
Capital, reinvestment, skills and governance require resources. The sources provide neither a consolidated public cost nor a causal cost per additional job here. Business revenue is not net social benefit. [1][2]
Limits of the comparison
Cooperative members and subsidiary employees are different categories. Cooperation does not eliminate losses, business closures or conflicts of interest. The group's scale and survival do not validate every decision by its businesses.
OpenGov3's interpretation
What it can teach Brazil
How can worker participation, market competition and continuity of projects work together?
What to monitor when adapting it
- Employment split between members and employees
- Effective participation and accountability
- Viability, reinvestment and risk by business
- Training and worker transitions
These are criteria for analysis, not commitments already made or estimated outcomes for Brazil. A well-documented practice is not, by itself, causal proof of an entire country's success.
Sources consulted
Consulted on 10/29/2026. Each result retains its observed period; institutional descriptions and impact evaluations have different scopes.
- OECD — Social Economy in Europe: Spain (opens in a new tab)
Spanish social economy: principles, entities and support; the national context is not the group's result.
- MONDRAGON — Annual Report 2025 (opens in a new tab)
The group's own account of 2025; the indexed title mentions 2024. Business scale does not measure causally additional jobs.