The metamorphosis of the cooperative ideologies in French capitalism during the interwar period (1919-1939)

This paper provides an overview of the ideological transformations of the cooperative movement in French capitalism during the interwar period (1919-1939). The first cooperatives experiences emerged in the beginning of the 19th century in Europe in response to contradictions between democratic and industrial revolutions – the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers founded in 1844 in Manchester area is an emblematic example. The cooperative movement has seen a rapid development in the second half of the nineteenth century, however it only became a major movement in the daily life of the working class in France, United Kingdom as well as in other capitalist countries [Toucas, 2005; Robertson, 2010; Draperi, 2012]. The debates within the cooperative movement during the interwar period are particularly interesting because they provide a better understanding of the role of the cooperatives in the transformations of capitalist economies from the past to the present day. This paper focuses more on the evolution of cooperative ideas in French capitalism during the interwar period through neo-liberal papers on cooperatives by Bernard Lavergne and Hyacinthe Dubreuil, and socialist papers on cooperatives of George Fauquet and Marcel Mauss. The first part of this paper gives some contextual elements about the evolution of French cooperative movement – especially consumer cooperatives – during the economic boom of the 1920s until the crisis of the 1930s [Toucas, 2005], as well as general remarks on the evolution of economic ideas and institutions during this period [Pirou, 1939; Blyth, 2012; Boyer, 2015]. In the second part, the paper focuses on the analyses of two cooperative propositions which fall within the emergence of neo-liberalism in France in the 1930s [Audier, 2012]: the Cooperative Order by Bernard Lavergne [1926; 1936] which purpose is to give power to consumers by liberalizing the market and the welfare state; and the cooperative organization of work proposed by Hyacinthe Dubreuil [1924; 1934] which aim to liberalize workers of modern corporations. The third part focuses on the role of cooperatives in the "Keynesian turn" of the French socialism through the papers of two cooperative thinkers: George Fauquet [1935] who promotes the Cooperative Sector to integrate the different kinds of cooperatives inside a mixed economy system; Marcel Mauss [1997; 2013] considers that cooperatives are good way to enhance the empowerment of consumers and citizens into socialist nationalisation. The economic and political debates that take place in recent years are reminiscent of the ideological tensions that crossed the French cooperative movement during the interwar period. In response to the crisis of capitalism and welfare state, cooperatives and generally social economy or third sector are now promoted as alternatives to the economic system, but history reminds us of the diversity and ambiguity of the cooperatives ideas and practices in the dynamics of capitalism.