The Reign of the Capital

Vol. 23 No. 4 (2003)

Oct-Dec / 2003
Published October 1, 2003
PDF-Portuguese (Português (Brasil))
PDF-Portuguese (Português (Brasil))

How to Cite

Paula, João Antonio de. 2003. “The Reign of the Capital”. Brazilian Journal of Political Economy 23 (4):642-63. https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572003-0663.

The Reign of the Capital

João Antonio de Paula
Professor do Centro de Desenvolvimento e Planejamento Regional da Faculdade de Ciências Econômicas da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais – CEDEPLAR/FACE/UFMG, Belo Horizonte/MG, Brasil.
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 23 No. 4 (2003), Oct-Dec / 2003, Pages 642-663

Abstract

The article examines some constitutive aspects of capitalism from a historical and institutional point of view. The basic argument developed in the article is that the constitution of a specifically capitalist mode of  roduction entails the imposition of some institutions whose general meaning is the dissolution of the particularities that  are typical of the pre-modern world. The result of this process is a pseudo-universal sociability whose main instance is the fetishism of commodities.

JEL Classification: B14.


Keywords: Capital theory of labor value capitalism