ALONE AS A DROP, TOGETHER AS AN OCEAN: Corporate political activity in cooperatives

Abstract

In this paper we examine the forms of individual and collective involvement of corporate political activities (CPA) of Brazilian agricultural cooperatives, under the lens of the collective action theory. The theoretical rational points out that collective political activities are more efficient in achieving political alignment. Our hypothesis points out that the collective political activities of cooperatives increase benefits, such as access to credit from development banks. Methodologically, we use a mixed approach. For quantitative research, we developed an unbalanced panel database with 395 agricultural cooperatives based in the southern region of Brazil and analyzed the period from 2006 to 2018, which culminated in 4,772 observations. Hypotheses were tested using multivariate regression with random effects. In the qualitative approach, we conducted nine interviews with Brazilian politicians and former politicians, managers and cooperative specialists, members of the Organization of State Cooperatives (OCE) and Organization of Brazilian Cooperatives (OCB). The results suggest that individual political actions have no positive relationship with amounts financed by the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES). However, we have shown that collective CPA are highly related to obtaining funds from the state-owned bank. The results of the primary data corroborate this evidence.