Resource Mobilization and the Creation of US Producer's Cooperatives, 1835-1935

Abstract

Historical research identified only 595 producers' cooperatives in the United States between 1835 and 1935. Given the attention the cooperative movement received during that period, we are led to ask why so few were actually created. Our answer to this question focuses on the development of monopoly capitalism and the mobilization of political and economic resources. Political ideals expressed in populist and trade union movements provided some resources for cooperation, but these resources were not sufficient to promote cooperation over the emerging individualistic incentives of monopoly capitalism.