Estado, estado-nação e formas de intermediação social

This paper, first, situates the nation-state historically, as a product of the capitalist revolution. Second, it distinguishes the state (the law system and the organization that guarantees it) from the nation-state or country (the territorial political unit formed by a nation, a state and a territory). Third, it defines nation, civil society and class coalitions, understanding that they are forms of society politically organized, which role is to act as intermediary between society and the state. Fourth, it uses these concepts plus the ones of relative autonomy and of anteriority to understand the ever changing relation between the state and society, where in early moments the state or its elites assumed the lead, and later, as democratization takes place, the protagonist role changed gradually to the people. The paper emphasizes the class coalitions, and argues that behind the two basic forms or economic and political organization of capitalism – developmentalism and economic liberalism – there are the correspondent class coalitions

Homogeneous middles vs. heterogeneous tails, and the end of the ‘Inverted-U’: the share of the rich is what it’s all about

This paper examines the current global scene of distributional disparities within-nations. There are six main conclusions. First, about 80 per cent of the world’s population now live in regions whose median country has a Gini not far from 40. Second, as outliers are now only located among middle-income and rich countries, the ‘upwards’ side of the ‘Inverted-U’ between inequality and income per capita has evaporated (and with it the statistical support there was for the hypothesis that posits that, for whatever reason, ‘things have to get worse before they can get better’). Third, among middle-income countries Latin America and mineral-rich Southern Africa are uniquely unequal, while Eastern Europe follows a distributional path similar to the Nordic countries. Fourth, among rich countries there is a large (and growing) distributional diversity. Fifth, within a global trend of rising inequality, there are two opposite forces at work. One is ‘centrifugal’, and leads to an increased diversity in the shares appropriated by the top 10 and bottom 40 per cent. The other is ‘centripetal’, and leads to a growing uniformity in the income-share appropriated by deciles 5 to 9. Therefore, half of the world’s population (the middle and upper-middle classes) have acquired strong ‘property rights’ over half of their respective national incomes; the other half, however, is increasingly up for grabs between the very rich and the poor. And sixth, Globalisation is thus creating a distributional scenario in which what really matters is the income-share of the rich — because the rest ‘follows’ (middle classes able to defend their shares, and workers with ever more precarious jobs in ever more ‘flexible’ labour markets). Therefore, anybody attempting to understand the within-nations disparity of inequality should always be reminded of this basic distributional fact following the example of Clinton’s campaign strategist: by sticking a note on their notice-boards saying “It’s the share of the rich, stupid”.

The revenge of the market on the rentiers why neo-liberal reports of the end of history turned out to be premature

Starting from the perspective of heterodox Keynesian-Minskyian-Kindlebergian financial economics, this paper begins by highlighting a number of mechanisms that contributed to the current financial crisis. These include excess liquidity, income polarisation, conflicts between financial and productive capital, lack of intelligent regulation, asymmetric information, principal-agent dilemmas and bounded rationalities. However, the paper then proceeds to argue that perhaps more than ever the ‘macroeconomics’ that led to this crisis only makes analytical sense if examined within the framework of the political settlements and distributional outcomes in which it had operated. Taking the perspective of critical social theories the paper concludes that, ultimately, the current financial crisis is the outcome of something much more systemic, namely an attempt to use neo-liberalism (or, in US terms, neo-conservatism) as a new technology of power to help transform capitalism into a rentiers’ delight. And in particular, into a system without much ‘compulsion’ on big business; i.e., one that imposes only minimal pressures on big agents to engage in competitive struggles in the real economy (while inflicting exactly the opposite fate on workers and small firms). A key component in the effectiveness of this new technology of power was its ability to transform the state into a major facilitator of the ever-increasing rent-seeking practices of oligopolistic capital. The architects of this experiment include some capitalist groups (in particular rentiers from the financial sector as well as capitalists from the ‘mature’ and most polluting industries of the preceding techno-economic paradigm), some political groups, as well as intellectual networks with their allies – including most economists and the ‘new’ left. Although rentiers did succeed in their attempt to get rid of practically all fetters on their greed, in the end the crisis materialised when ‘markets’ took their inevitable revenge on the rentiers by calling their (blatant) bluff.

Why has productivity growth stagnated in most Latin American countries since the neo-liberal reforms?

Latin America’s economic performance since the beginning of neo-liberal reforms has been poor; this not only contrasts with its own performance pre-1980, but also with what has happened in Asia since 1980. I shall argue that the weakness of the region’s new paradigm is rooted as much in its intrinsic flaws as in the particular way it has been implemented. Latin America’s economic reforms were undertaken primarily as a result of the perceived economic weaknesses of the region — i.e., there was an attitude of ‘throwing in the towel’ vis-à-vis the previous state-led import substituting industrialisation strategy, because most politicians and economists interpreted the 1982 debt crisis as conclusive evidence that it had led the region into a cul-de-sac. As Hirschman has argued, policymaking has a strong component of ‘path-dependency’; as a result, people often stick with policies after they have achieved their aims, and those policies have become counterproductive. This leads to such frustration and disappointment with existing policies and institutions that is not uncommon to experience a ‘rebound effect’. An extreme example of this phenomenon is post-1982 Latin America, where the core of the discourse of the economic reforms that followed ended up simply emphasising the need to reverse as many aspects of the previous development (and political) strategies as possible. This helps to explain the peculiar set of priorities, the rigidity and the messianic attitude with which the reforms were implemented in Latin America, as well as their poor outcome. Something very different happened in Asia, where economic reforms were often intended (rightly or wrongly) as a more targeted and pragmatic mechanism to overcome specific economic and financial constraints. Instead of implementing reforms as a mechanism to reverse existing industrialisation strategies, in Asia they were put into practice in order to continue and strengthen ambitious processes of industrialisation.

Adam Smith visto por Roberto Campos: a (re)criação do mito e as necessidades do capitalismo

This work aims at analyzing how Adam Smith, one of the founders of the liberal regime was seen by Roberto Campos, one of the patriarchs of Brazilian liberalism. In this sense, it will be shown how and why the legacy of Scotland was used to legitimize the new pattern of accumulation necessary to capitalism from the second half of the twentieth century on. So, it is the intention to make explicit that the changes in Campos discursive form are consistent with the requirements of capitalism in crisis and were fundamental in the creation of another common sense. To achieve these goals it will be assessed in what way the liberal rhetoric of the Brazilian, harmonized with foreign authors with the same vision, has become an important weapon to transform Smith into a myth in contrast to the political and economic criteria advocated by the same, but valuable to what Roberto Campos intended

A relação histórica entre democracia e liberalismo. Um diálogo crítico com Norberto Bobbio.

This work seeks to examine the historical relationships established between liberalism and democracy, questioning the apparent inseparability between the two ideologies. Methodologically construct a hypothetical dialogue with the Italian thinker Norberto Bobbio, one of the most important systematizers of liberal democracy, defending a theoretical and conceptual complementarity between the two ideologies. Following the Bobbio theoretical propose, it presents the political contributions of classical liberalism that the Italian thinker identify as logical and axiological antecedent of the modern democracy, naturalizing and universalizing the principles and ideals of classical liberalism. Going counter, it problematizes the political contributions of classical liberalism, emphasizing the tension between liberal theory and its practice, between the declared political principles and their translation into concrete historical reality, reserving rights and freedoms to property minority and severe restrictions to the majority. The critical analysis of classical liberalism allows questioning the privilege position that Bobbio reserves to the liberalism in the democracy history, to restore the important contribution of illiberal politics currents in the civil, political and social rights history, advocating the democracy with its social character, inclusive and participatory

O princípio constitucional da livre concorrência como instrumento de desenvolvimento socioeconômico

The freedom of concurrence, firstly conceived as a simple market fundament in productive systems that recognized the productive forces freedom of action, appears as a clear instrument of protection and fomentation of the market, recognizing the importance of the simultaneous existence of various economic forces such the proper capitalism reason of constitution. It has, thus, a directly role linked to the fundamental idea that the market and its productive forces needed of a protection against itself, because it exists inside the market situations and circumstances, provoked or not, that could prejudice and even annihilate the its existence and functioning, whilst a complex role of productive forces presents at all economic creation space. It was the primacy of the classic liberalism, the first phase of the capitalism. The Constitutions, in that historic moment, did not proclaim any interference at the economic scenario, simply because it recognized the existence of an economic freedom prepared to justify and guarantee the market forces, with its own rules. Based on the structural changes that occurred at the following historic moments, inside the constitutionally recognized capitalism, it was verified changes in the ambit of treatment of the freedom of concurrence principle that, in a progressive way, passes to present a configuration more concerned with socialist and developing ideas, as long as not only a market guarantee. It emerges a freedom of concurrence which aim is instrumental, in relation to its objectives and constitutional direction as a role, and not anymore stagnant and with isolated treatment, in special at the constitutional systems the present s clear aspects of social interventions and guarantor of fundamental rights more extensive and harmonious. That change is located at a space of state actuation much more ample and juridical important, this time comprehending the necessity of managing the productive scenario aiming to reach a national social and economic development effectively guarantor of fundamental rights for all citizens. Those Constitutions take as point of starting that the social and economic development, and not only anymore the economic growth, is the effective way for concretization of these rights. In that way it needs to be observed and crystallized by political and juridical tools that respect the ideological fundamental spirit of the Constitutional Charters. In that scenario that seeks for solutions of rights accomplishment, in special the social rights, the constitutional principle of freedom of concurrence has been seen as an instrument for reaching bigger values and directives, such as the social justice, which only can be real at a State that can implement a comprehensive and permanent social and economic development. The freedom of concurrence tries to valorize and defend something larger and consonant to the political values expressed in the Constitutional Charters with social character, which is the right to a social and economical sustainable development, guarantor of more clear and compromised collective benefits with social justice. The origin of that constitutional imposition is not only supported by vague orientations of the economic space, but as integrated to it, with basis formed of normative and principles posted and prepared to produce effects at the proper reason of the Constitution

O lugar social do fisioterapeuta brasileiro

Este estudo visa compreender a produção do lugar social do fisioterapeuta brasileiro por meio de suas práticas. O material empírico utilizado foram 89 entrevistas, dados do I Censo de Fisioterapeutas do Estado de São Paulo e informações sobre os cursos de graduação em Fisioterapia no Brasil. A análise dos dados mostrou que o lugar social do fisioterapeuta está fortemente ligado ao modelo curativo, identificado com o ideário liberal-privatista, com instituições formadoras predominantemente privadas e concentradas na região Sudeste. Os resultados sustentam evidências de uma prática profissional fragmentada, estimulada pelo modelo hegemônico, mas também apresenta marcas de superação, mostrando a disputa de dois modelos na atenção à saúde: hegemônico e contra-hegemônico. O primeiro toma a parte pelo todo, fragmenta o conhecimento e o corpo, identifica-se com o liberalismo e tem a saúde como mercadoria; a organização dos serviços é centrada na doença e na especialização. O segundo, sem negar a importância do conhecimento técnico, valoriza as dimensões sociais e humanas na prática profissional, está centrado na pessoa e busca a integralidade e a interdisciplinaridade. Esse modelo permite ampliar a prática do fisioterapeuta para além da clínica, em direção a um lugar social mais humano e solidário, identificado com os princípios do Sistema Único de Saúde. Também permite repensar o atual lugar social, oferecendo parâmetros para a reorientação dos caminhos da profissão.

Mariana , Pai contra mãe e O caso da vara : escravidão e chão histórico em Machado de Assis

Machado de Assis understood his time and brought his perception of Brazilian society in the 19th century, with its multiple aspects economy, politics, culture, amongst others - to the texts he wrote. Through the tensions lived in his novels and short stories, Machado displays Brazilian social reality and the changes it had been undergoing. Mariana and Pai contra mãe show the crisis of the slavery system, the relation of dependency, the treatment given to the captives and the lack of coherence of a country that intended to adopt Liberalism as an ideology, but which kept on living under the shadow of slavery and its consequences. A country where the priorities were given to the landlords, owners of slaves, in protection of their interests. O caso da vara tells about how the crias da casa little black girls who lived in the household and learned how to make spool embroidery were treated. What were the punishments for desobedience and how they were levelled out, how should be the behaviour of a child who lived as a social outcast. Thus, this paper aims at playing a game of mirrors between History and fiction. Not only to play it, but to analyze how Machado deals with the reflections of 19th century Brazil on his short stories