The infinite-volume limit of the dynamics of (generalized) mean-field spin models is obtained through a direct analysis of the equations of motion, in a large class of representations of the spin algebra. The resulting dynamics fits into a general framework for systems with long-range interaction: variables at infinity appear in the time evolution of local variables and spontaneous symmetry breaking with an energy gap follows from this mechanism. The independence of the construction of the approximation scheme in finite volume is proven.