Too little intervention or too much? The contribution of the State to the development of wine cooperatives in Spain

Abstract

This article analyses the contribution of the State to the expansion of wine cooperatives in Spain over the course of the twentieth and the early years of the twenty-first centuries. We examine the legislation that created the institutional framework for their development, and the role of the State in providing both financial and technical assistance. We show that the State's contribution was critical to differences not just in the rate of their expansion but also in their distribution throughout the main winegrowing regions of Spain. Finally, we assess the consequences of State intervention on their overall performance, highlighting a lack of involvement as the main reason for the slow development of wine cooperatives in the early period, but also the dangers of excessive State intervention later.