Abstract: This article analyzes the Mondragon Cooperative Group in the Basque provinces in Spain, the largest concentration of industrial producer cooperatives outside Yugoslavia and China. Enterprises within the group are financially independent and operate under distinctive rules. While Basque history and culture is permissive of cooperative organization, they do not appear to be the main explanatory factors for the existence of Mondragon and there has been considerable interest in its replication. The article compares the adjustment of the Mondragon group over 1976-1984 with that of the surroundings Basque and Spanish economies. The article also provides a brief description of Mondragon and outlines four potential features of the responses of a cooperative group to recession.

　　Subjects: INDUSTRIAL relations; COOPERATIVE societies; PRODUCER cooperatives; LABOR contract; SPAIN; MONDRAGON Cooperative Corp.