Florestan Fernandes e a interpretação do Brasil: dependência e autocracia

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to analyze the relationship between dependent capitalism and autocracy, given that these concepts are essential within the work of Florestan Fernandes to understand the democratic model that is considered in Latin American countries. We will focus on his intellectual production in the 1970s and 1980s, comprising the following works: Social Changes in Brazil (1959), Power and Counterpower in Latin America (1971), Dependent Capitalism and Social Classes in Latin America (1973), The Bourgeois Revolution in Brazil (1975), Closed Circuit (1976), Notes on the “Theory of Authoritarianism” (1979), Class Society and Underdevelopment (1981). The choice of this period is justified by the deepening of his studies on the theme of expansion of capitalism, national integration, and the characterization of the class regime in peripheral and underdeveloped countries. In this path, the author highlights that, as a result of the pattern of development that is consolidated from the reiterated reproduction of the colonial and slave-holding past, an autocratic-bourgeois State that excludes a large portion of the population from political spaces is built. For this work, a bibliographical review was carried out, aiming to establish a dialogue with the critical fortune that investigates the intellectual contribution of Florestan Fernandes.