Abstract This paper examines peasant-led agricultural cooperative formation in Brazil from a political economy perspective. It takes as a point of reference the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, or Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST). The paper identifies the MST’s main periods of cooperative formation within their particular contexts. Each of these periods oriented and, eventually, reoriented the MST’s overall cooperative efforts. The MST linked agrarian reform and agricultural cooperativism in order to advance political and economic democracy. While the MST’s pursuit of political and economic democracy took place within unfavorable conditions, the MST was able to build a transformative cooperative project capable of reducing structural poverty, enhancing political citizenship, and promoting environmental stewardship. In spite of these achievements, the long-term sustainability of this cooperative project depends significantly on the MST’s capacity to overcome structural barriers and, most importantly, obtain long-term support from state and non-state actors.

中文翻译：

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巴西农业合作主义的政治：以失地农民工运动为例

摘要本文从政治经济学的角度考察了巴西农民主导的农业合作社的形成。它以Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra（无土地农民工运动）为参考。本文确定了MST在特定情况下合作形成的主要时期。在每个阶段中，MST都将负责并最终重新定向MST的整体合作努力。MST将土地改革与农业合作主义联系在一起，以促进政治和经济民主。尽管MST在不利的条件下追求政治和经济民主，但MST能够建立一个能够减少结构性贫困，增强政治公民权和促进环境管理的变革性合作项目。