The Pattern of Capital Reproduction in Brazil

Notes

1. This is the definition adopted by ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean). An alternative is to select countries for cultural similarities, particularly languages. In this case, the region would comprise those countries with Latin languages.

2. It is necessary to take into account the situation of countries and small economies of Central America, some of which even today retain the status of protectorates. In many cases, these economies are not industrialized in the sense of containing a group of industrial sectors and should be characterized as economies engaged in primary exports mixed with tourist activities. Thus, the claims we are making is call for a relation with some countries not represented as not being the focus of our analysis.

3. Theotônio dos Santos deals with this in several studies, specifically Socialism or Fascism: The Latin American Dilemma (1969).

4. The improvement of living conditions that we are talking about refers to average conditions, which does not imply any contradiction with social inequality. This deepens precisely through the overexploitation of the labor force.

5. If the average conditions changed, the minimum levels of remuneration, quite generally in the population, remained significantly below the social conditions allowed for by the process of industrialization.

6. Mello (1982) defines these as being the introduction of specifically capitalist production techniques. This is different to the regular use that identifies the conditions to an advanced position in the international division of labor and progress. We are using the term as Mello does.

7. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) regularly calculates the HDI (Human Development Index), whose traditional dimensions are GDP per capita, life expectancy, and schooling. The corresponding range for developed countries ranges from 0.8 to 1.0, on a general scale of 0 to 1. Tighter definitions of developed countries consider only per capita GDP. In this case, the threshold for developed countries is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country average of around US$ 20,000.00. The countries of Latin America do not appear in any of these ratings, although Mexico is part of the OECD.

8. Buitelaar and Ruth (1999) provide a study of Mexico and the industries of the countries of Central America and the Caribbean. Their concern is to investigate whether the maquiladora industry brings some benefit to the national economy in terms of technological advancement. The answer is yes, but on a much smaller scale than regular industries which conquer exports via productivity increases. For the purposes of this article, it suffices to compare the different characteristics of industry in these countries with those of the rest of the region.

9. Kenessey (2005) offers a relatively recent methodological discussion of “appointment,” if we divide the economy into large sectors using the method of the 1950s (Clark 1951). He suggests a way of dividing the tertiary sector, in order to characterize a fourth sector; this is essentially linked to technological activities in various forms, including education and training at work. The discussion is important and may qualify the nature of advanced capitalism better, since in our case we are only studying the nature of the social relations of production. Advanced capitalism would then be the extensive penetration of capitalist production techniques combined with the adoption of wage standards. However, this would require a separate article.

10. This issue is the subject of Araújo's (2013) thesis. There is an initial chapter that supports the thesis that global capitalism is reproduced by means of concentration of wealth and social exclusion. Then there is a theoretical development of the theme of patterns of capital reproduction. The argument anticipates standard characterizations of the factors of Brazilian development, although, as we shall see in section 2, without the full information required for this characterization.

11. There are also chapters by Carcanholo and Amaral about overexploitation and the transfer value.

12. This is clearly an approximation, because the concrete historical development of global capitalism expands the extent of interrelation of economies through the expansion of international trade relative to domestic trade. Thus, even the economies of the center may have breaks in the circuit. The important point to note is that this presents itself as a constitutive feature of Latin American economies, with repercussions for the level of economic dynamics. See Ruy Mauro Marini's writings, http://www.marini-escritos.unam.mx/.

13. In Dos Santos ([1970] 2011), the distinction between developed and dependent economies is precise. Dependency is defined as an incapacity for self-determination. However, in the historical process of capitalist development, self-determination is not realized, because of the huge dynamic benefits that international trade gave to economies able to lead the process of change in consumption patterns through productive innovations in products and processes.

14. In parenthesis, the reference to Dependency Theory arises from this internal debate. As noted, no method is agreed among the authors who deal with the subject of dependency, so it may be more appropriate to refer to the “Contribution of Dependence.”

15. Of course, we are simplifying references to a dense debate with social and political repercussions. To Fernando Henrique Cardoso we should add José Serra, Enzo Faletto, and an important part of the Campinas School. To Marini we should add at least Theotônio dos Santos and Vania Bambirra. See Almeida Filho (2005) and Araújo (2001).

16. Data from World Bank, accessed March 23, 2014, http://data.worldbank.org/.