The main objective of this article is to build up a typology of the ideological discourses which guide and legitimize the different, and often mutually contradictory, reactions of Spanish agricultural co-operatives to the process of ever-increasing socio-economical globalization in which they are immersed. In accordance with this typology, in which we have followed a criterion similar to Max Weber's, we distinguish four ideal ideological discourse types. These go along a continuum from those which stress a more or less egalitarian mutualism, which has traditionally characterized co-operatives, to those which tend to look towards efficiency and managerial competitiveness. Although it focuses on the situation occurring in Spain, the analysis strategy adopted in the present work could be applied to the study of the reacions of agricultural co-operatives in other countries in similar socio-economic circumstances.