Dependent Capitalism and Autocratic Culture: Contributions to understanding contemporary Brazil

Abstract

This essay is motivated by the need to understand the nature of the dilemmas seen in Brazil today – an economy adorned by internal needs, marked by the systematic restriction of workers to access fundamental social rights, and a state power that is impermeable to the needs of the broad majorities. The article conducts a critical analysis of what we call autocratic culture based on its two constitutive elements: dependence and a recycling of the counter-revolutionary period. We understand autocratic culture to be the political expression of dependence, characterized by the permanent recycling of the democratic process, which remains focused on annulling the impetus of the social forces from below and preserving both the current standard of capital accumulation, as well as the self-privilege of the dominant class. The study involved bibliographic and document research. Our main interlocutors to the theme were the thinkers Florestan Fernandes (1976, 2008, 2009) and Ruy Mauro Marini (2011, 2012), because we believe that their work is essential to the phenomenon of Latin American dependence.