Vol. 44 No. 2 (2024): Apr-Jun / 2024


Vol. 44 No. 2 (2024)

Apr-Jun / 2024
Published March 22, 2024

Article


Developmentalist policies in financialized economies: contradictions and impasses of the Brazilian case
Miguel Bruno, Leda Maria Paulani
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572024-3473

This paper discusses the applicability of economic policies and other developmentalist
governmental actions to financialized economies. It mobilizes the theoretical-methodological
regulationist principles for a historical and institutional macro-analysis. After a
brief review of the concepts of the Regulation School, including the “economic policy regime”
(Théret, 1992; Lordon, 2002; Boyer, 2015), the Brazilian case is analyzed as a remarkable example
of institutional compatibility with rentier-financial accumulation to the detriment of
the accumulation of productive fixed capital. Several indicators of this case are presented.

JEL Classification: E02; E6; O1; O2; O3.


Long waves of economic growth in Asia and Western Europe, 1950-2020: are there any circularcumulative causation and contradiction aspects?
Bhimo R. Samudro, Yogi P. Pratama, Albertus M. Soesilo, Harry Bloch, Ruhul Salim, Andri Prasetyo, Muhammad B. Sistriatmaja
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572024-3522

This paper discusses some comparative analysis between the pattern of economic
performances in Asia and Western Europe during 1950s-2020s through political economies
perspective. The Asian and Western European economic performances are investigated
through some stylized facts in the sense of economic factors. Three analyses are used to explain
the general pattern of these regions. First, this study examines the pattern of GDP
growth per capita during the 1950s-2020s, focusing on several countries in this region. Second,
the analysis captures the pattern of linkages of economic variables in this region related
to the principle of Circular and Cumulative causation (CCC) and contradiction. Third, the
analysis employs a historical perspective underpinned by the results in the second analysis.
This third analysis is crucial to appreciating Asia’s global economic performance and also the
process of Western deterioration phenomenon through long wave, including the occurrence
recession and financial crises. The institutions of globalization and neoliberalism that put the
power of capital promoted a financial crisis several times during the decades of 1980s-2020.
The financial crisis is depicted by contradictions in the structural linkages among economic
factors in Western Europe over the period.

JEL Classification: B15; B52; P48.


An analysis of the Chinese inward FDI development and regulation policy and the Five-Year Plans
Tomás Costa de Azevedo Marques, Giorgio Romano Schutte
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572024-3564

At the end of the 1970s, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) promoted policies
to attract investments from the developed capitalist world, aiming for technological transfer
and offering a profitable environment in exchange. Although the TNC capital, know-how,
and technology have been key factors for Chinese development, the State has planned and 
regulated those investments, so they can be aligned with an autonomous project of development,
avoiding the classic centre-periphery dependency relationship. This paper analysis focuses
on the Five-Year Plans, and the regulation policy laws for inward investment. At the
end we analyse the FDI data, which allowed us to identify the main changes and distinct
phases of the development of FDI and the State policy.

JEL Classification: F63; N95; O19.


Developmentalism as historical legacy
Renato Perissinotto
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572024-3567

Our goal is, using the concept of critical juncture, to discuss developmentalism
as a historical legacy. To do so, in the first section, we provide a stylized description of four
typical cases (Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, and Taiwan) and then, employing the technique
of process tracing, propose a causal mechanism composed of structural and volitional factors
to understand the emergence of developmentalism. It concludes that developmentalism
illustrates the advantages of a historical social science that allows us to go beyond the analysis
of the ideational content of various developmentalist paradigms and move towards identifying
the historical conditions of their production as a political project.

JEL Classification: B0.


Income transfers and household debt. The advancing collateralization of social policy in the midst of restructuring crises
Lena Lavinas, Eliane Araújo, Pedro Rubin
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572024-3511

The aim of this article is to address how household debt and contemporary credit
markets seem to be the defining elements in the reshaping of social policy both in developing and developed countries. We start off by recalling how the implementation of income
policies as the core of a new social protection paradigm has contributed to promote marketbased
finance. We take Brazil as a case study to illustrate how this new connection between
state guaranteed income policies and credit markets has unfolded resulting in increasing
household debt. We show evidence that the connection between household debt and stateprovided
monetary benefits is effective and significant.

JEL Classification: E44; O11; O54.


The political economy of economic policy: industrial entrepreneurs and macroeconomic prices in Brazil (2003-2016)
Pedro Micussi
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572024-3517

The article aims to discuss aspects of the contemporary Brazilian political economy,
showing how Brazilian large manufacturing entrepreneurs acted in defense of their interests
in the dispute over the design of economic policy throughout the Partido dos Trabalhadore
(Workers’ Party) governments between 2003 and 2016. It is argued that is possible
to identify an inter-class dispute over the definition of four macroeconomic prices – the profit
rate, the interest rate, the exchange rate, and the wage rate – which places industrial capitalists
sometimes against the rentier sector, sometimes against the labor movement in Brazil.

JEL Classification: E60; O1; P00; Z13.


Chinese global agribusiness project in the Brazilian soybean commodity chain: Historical structures and current actions
Giacomo Otavio Tixiliski
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572024-3525

This article describes the political motivations and economic actions of China’s
global agribusiness project in the Brazilian soybean commodity chain. To verify these facts,
we use literature review and qualitative data analysis through a long-term description of the
political and economic actions of the Chinese agents. Additionally, we connect Chinese investments
on the Brazilian soybean commodity chain as a practical representation of these
actions. In sum, the article highlighted that long-term structures influence current actions in
China and is being strengthened by the active participation of Chinese firms in commodity
chains, such as Brazilian soybean.

JEL Classification: F23; N45.


Preschool expansion in Brazil: an analysis of historical determinants
Talita Silva, Thais Barcellos, Guilherme Hirata, João Batista Araujo e Oliveira
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572024-3476

The school attendance of 4-5 years-old children raised from 3.7% to 78.9% between
1970 and 2018 in Brazil. This paper analyses the preschool expansion process in Brazil
in the last 50 years, documenting the preschool attendance and discussing how sociodemographic
and institutional factors usually associated with the expansion are related to the
process. The paper shows that female labor force participation, public investments, and demographic
factors were to some extent important but not crucial to the expansion of pre-school attendance in Brazil. Furthermore, the observed expansion seems to be a result of uncoordinated
and unplanned policies implemented in the period.

JEL Classification: H52, I21; N36.