Economia e retórica: o capítulo brasileiro

Considering the rise of the discussion about the rhetoric of economics at the beginning of the 1980's, the paper aims to show: 1) the relation between the origin of this issue in the academic field and the ascension of the so labeled "neoliberalism" as a doctrine and a collection of capitalist practices perceived at the same time; and 2) the consequences produced by this idea, overseas born, when it meets a peripherical reality like the Brazilian one. In the first case, we are going to show the importance of Hayek's reflections about the inadequateness of neoclassical discourse to the aim of ideologically legitimate the market society. In the second we are going to point out that, taking the consequences of the rhetoric project in Brazil, it can be seeing as an additional chapter of "the ideas out of its place" that comes marking the Brazilian history of the ideas.

Um modelo macrodinâmico pós-keynesiano de simulação

A post-keynesian macro-dynamic model of simulation. The objective of this article is to present the structure and the simulation results of a one-sector macro-dynamic model that embeds some elements of the post-keynesian theory. The computational simulation of the model replicates some important features of capitalist dynamics as the phenomenon of cyclical growth, the long-run stability of the profit rate and functional distribution of income, the maintenance of idle-capacity in the long-run and the occurrence of a single episode of deep fall in real economic activity, which is in accordance with the rarity character of great crashes in the history of capitalism. Moreover, the simulation results show that a great reduction in inflation rate will be followed by an increase of financial fragility, increasing the like-hood of a great depression. As a policy advice derived from the simulation results, we can state that the Central Bank should never promote big reductions in inflation rate.

'TINA', Aids, and the underdevelopment problem in Africa

The assumption that 'There Is No Alternative' (TINA) to capitalism as practiced in the United States of America and Western Europe has been the bane of aids effectiveness in assisting to solve the underdevelopment problem in Africa. This paper attempts to show that except there is a fundamental reorientation in the conceptualization of capitalism-free market and democracy-the underdevelopment problem would only be further complicated with aids.

Globalization, nation-state and catching up

Globalization and nation-states are not in contradiction, since globalization is the present stage of capitalist development, and the nation-state is the territorial political unit that organizes the space and population in the capitalist system. Since the 1980s, Global Capitalism constitutes the economic system characterized by the opening of all national markets and a fierce competition between nation-states. Developing countries tend to catch up, while rich countries try to neutralize such competitive effort, using globalism as an ideology, and conventional orthodoxy as a strategy. Middle-income countries that are catching up in the realm of globalization are the ones that count with a national development strategy. This is broadly the case of the dynamic Asian countries. In contrast, Latin American countries have no longer their own strategy, and grow less. To add data to the argument, the author conducts an econometric test comparing these two groups of countries, and three variables: the rate of investment, the current account deficit or surplus that would indicate or not a competitive exchange rate, and public deficit.

Michal Kalecki, um pioneiro da teoria econômica do desenvolvimento

Kalecki made important contributions to development economics, which rank him among the founding fathers of this area of our discipline. The objective of this paper is to give an account of his contributions, and in particular of his conception of the peculiarities and the way of functioning of the underdeveloped economies, and of the barriers that limits their capacity for high and sustained long run growth. As most socialist economists of his time, he was skeptic about the possibilities of overcoming underdevelopment under capitalism. However, in contradistinction to other pioneers of development economics, Kalecki did not stress the international forces that hamper development, but put the accent rather in the internal institutions and social and political determinants. In particular, the feudal and semi-feudal conditions in agriculture, the reduced market ensuing from income concentration and widespread monopolization of the economy, and the lack of willingness of entrepreneurs to carry out the necessary investments. Accordingly, his economic policy recommendations emphasized also the domestic aspects involved.

The 2008 financial crisis and neoclassical economics

The 2008 global financial crisis was the consequence of the process of financialization, or the creation of massive fictitious financial wealth, that began in the 1980s, and of the hegemony of a reactionary ideology, namely, neoliberalism, based on self-regulated and efficient markets. Although capitalism is intrinsically unstable, the lessons from the stock-market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression of the 1930s were transformed into theories and institutions or regulations that led to the "30 glorious years of capitalism" (1948-1977) and that could have avoided a financial crisis as profound as the present one. It did not because a coalition of rentiers and "financists" achieved hegemony and, while deregulating the existing financial operations, refused to regulate the financial innovations that made these markets even more risky. Neoclassical economics played the role of a meta-ideology as it legitimized, mathematically and "scientifically", neoliberal ideology and deregulation. From this crisis a new capitalism will emerge, though its character is difficult to predict. It will not be financialized but the tendencies present in the 30 glorious years toward global and knowledge-based capitalism, where professionals will have more say than rentier capitalists, as well as the tendency to improve democracy by making it more social and participative, will b e resumed.

Estado e economia na Coreia do Sul - do Estado desenvolvimentista à crise asiática e à recuperação posterior

The State and the economy in South Korea: from the developmentist state to the Asian crisis and later recovery. The article focuses on the institutions of South Korean capitalism and on the interactions between the state and the economy. The economic model in South Korea was characterized by a very interventionist state, which played a very active role in the process of industrialization. However, South Korea suffered a severe crisis in 1997, attributed by many authors to the distortions inherent to strong state intervention. The article shows that the crisis was a result of the combination between internal economic fragilities and a rapid process of financial deregulation, which undermined the state's capacity of control. The crisis, nevertheless, does not disqualify the role of the national institutions in the very successful process of industrialization. Despite the reforms, the Korean capitalism conserves much of the previous model of business organization and industrial relations. The state continues strong and played active role in the process of economic reforms. There are, nevertheless, doubts about the impacts of the reforms and the new configuration of Korean capitalism. They will depend on the current transformations in world economy and in the East Asian countries.

A sobrevivência das pequenas empresas no desenvolvimento capitalista

The survival of small companies in the capitalist development. The role of small companies in capitalist development has raised, throughout the years, the analytical curiosity of economists and other social scientists. In spite of the enormous disadvantages that they possess in competing with big capital, there are innumerable reasons for their survival. The empirical evidence is clear in attesting the importance of small companies in terms of GDP share and job creation and, at the same time, their difficulties for surviving. This paper presents a theoretical revision, departing from Marx, Marshall, Steindl and Schumpeter up to some contemporary authors, concerning the role of the small companies in capitalist development, emphasizing the reasons and the difficulties for its survival.

Situando o desenvolvimento rural no Brasil: o contexto e as questões em debate

Addressing rural development discussions in Brazil: context and issues of debate. The work analyzes the main theoretical trends and subjects that integrate the recent Brazilian debate about rural development. We agued that the agenda of the rural development in Brazil, on which actively participate scholars, organizations and institutions, have been formulated by the State and the public politics implemented since the beginning of the 1990. Among the factors that had influenced the emergency of the debate about rural development is distinguished the increasing social and political legitimating of family farming and the agrarian reform, the reorientation of the state policies, the increasing sharply political and ideological quarrels with the agribusiness wing and the matters about sustainability. It is also argued that the analytical and interpretative references that have being used by the scholars are still diffuse and varied, but has been capable to influence the policy makers.

Uma mestra na periferia do capitalismo: a economia política de Maria da Conceição Tavares

A master in the periphery of capitalism. Maria da Conceição Tavares is an eminent figure in Brazilian economic thought, especially in heterodox circles. She has tackled various issues, such as underdevelopment, from the perspective of a "critique of political economy". The purpose of this article is to identify the main theoretical references, as well as the methodological stance, in Tavares's works, by revisiting the author's critical dialogue with some strands of Political Economy. Although Tavares's work sets up a dialogue with various economists, the paper will focus on her interpretation of Marx, Keynes and Kalecki, whose ideas are of utmost importance for the construction of her analytical framework.

The grab of the world's land and water resources

In this paper, I review recent developments in global political economy and political economy of development that have captured inter alia the attention of agrarian political economists. I do so through the periscope of two recent publications by Fred pearce, Great Britain's leading eco journalist and an edited volume by Tony Allann, Martin Keulertz, Suvi Sojamo and Jeroen Warner, scholars trained in different disciplines and based at various universities in the UK, the netherlands, and Finland. The account of the pace, places, and perpetrators, procedures, and problems of this particular agrarian model provides fodder for the further development of a locus classicus on what is happening to the land question in this current moment under the capitalist order, a shorthand for which is 'water and land grab'.

Democracy over governance

Varieties of institutional economics are available to evaluate varieties of capitalism. These methodologies dig behind preferences and technology to arrive at the ground on which agents make choices. The individual is at the foundation of these edifices, neoclassical and otherwise. Consequently, the denouement of all these models is that the market knows best in the absence of effective counterfactuals. A natural corollary is that the task of the government is to set effective mechanisms in place in order to approach the best outcomes. In contrast, we propose a framework which contends with the modern economy as an aggregate that evolves in historical time. Problems like effective demand failures are endemic to capitalist economies. Therefore, systematic State intervention is essential to their functioning. In particular, political economy teaches us that intervention must be in the interest of wage earners. In contrast to the earlier model, the fabric of norms and conventions that facilitate the growth and development of economies must emerge from the consciousness and practices of the working class.

Incerteza e não ergodicidade: crítica aos neoclássicos

The starting point of this essay is to show that, in our view, the problem of the traditional economics is not in the deductive method nor the mathematical methods used, but to attribute to economic agents "power" on the future and prescribe the existence of ergodic stochastic processes in their economic analyzes. Thus, building a theory on the ground whose bases are not able to sustain a proper understanding of the world, mainstream economics has difficulties in using the modeling for establishing deductions and conclusions that help understanding the system. Thus, the logical-mathematical rigor in economic models and deduction can be used with appropriate axioms, which is not the case of mainstream economics. Our hypothesis is that the inability of the mainstream in predicting economic crisis is due to the non-recognition of some principles that best describe the dynamics of financialized contemporary capitalism, as the principles of non-ergodicity and Keynesian uncertainty.

Notas sobre o pensamento de Ignácio Rangel no centenário de seu nascimento

This paper is a tribute to one of the greatest Brazilian intellectuals of the XXth century, Ignácio Rangel, at the Centenary of his birth. The two analytical pillars of his thought are discussed, namely the thesis of the long term "basic duality" of the Brazilian economy and of the national political structure, and the idea that economic planning should always involve the identification and use of idle resources. It is argued that his ideas on history and his defense of planning integrate a wider development theory, which combines structural change (industrialization, agrarian modernization, the strengthening of the financial capital, etc.) and a macro-dynamic approach on idle capacity and economic cycles. By way if conclusion the ideas are evaluated from a XXIst century perspective.

Just how capitalist is China?

In this paper, we review old and modern conceptions of "capitalism" and then we evaluate how "well" China fares on three touchstones of capitalism: competitive markets, generalization of wage-labour, and private ownership of the means of production. While we accept that China has come a long way under the first two criteria since the 1980s, we do not deem China yet to be a full-fledged capitalist economy for the State still wields great power through the allocation of massive state resources and control of large and highly profitable state enterprises, which dominate key sectors of the economy.