Cooperatives (1951-2001)

The Italian cooperative movement has grown in the fashion of a limestone river: the stream is continuously flowing but comes out into the open only at certain times. In fact, although Italian cooperation has experienced various ups and downs since the mid-nineteenth century, it has never disappeared altogether. However, only over the past thirty years it has become a surprisingly important player in the economy of the country. The present essay offers a quantitative analysis of this latter phase of development of the Italian cooperative movement, which has seen it transformed from a marginal to a powerful player in the nation’s economic context and attempts to identify the main causes of this radical transformation and to reflect on the challenges laying ahead.