Political economy of disaster and legal capture of risk in Brazil

Abstract

This article argues that environmental disasters in Brazil have ceased to be exceptional events and have become structural components of the country’s capitalist accumulation regime. The analysis of five cases that occurred between 2000 and 2015, Araucária, Miraí, Chevron/Bacia de Campos, Ultracargo fire, and Mariana, reveals how risk is institutionalized as a method of government and how destruction becomes an opportunity for economic valorization. Grounded in historical-dialectical materialism, the study demonstrates that the State, rather than containing risks, actively manages them, and that Environmental Law, despite its precautionary and responsibility-based principles, operates predominantly ex post facto, legitimizing the administration of collapse. The articulation between capital and the State weakens public policies, normalizes tragedy, and renders environmental justice structurally unfeasible. In light of this scenario, the article calls for a rethinking of the legal and political paradigms that structure the relationship between society, the State, and nature, pointing to the need for emancipatory alternatives in the face of the contemporary socio-environmental crisis.