Overexploitation of the Workforce and Concentration of Wealth: Key Issues for Development Policy in Brazilian Peripheral Capitalism

Abstract

This article aims to work out transformational proposals for development policies in Brazil sustained by Ruy Mauro Marini's analysis of the nature of peripheral capitalism in Latin America. In his analysis, superexploitation is constituted as a category showing the structural conditions of capitalism in Latin America, which tend to reproduce. In his most important work-Dialectics of Dependence (1973 [2000])-Marini shows that this very specific Latin American capitalism is deformed as compared to that observed in advanced countries. In this case, superexploitation does not impair the reproduction of labor power, but it limits the dynamics of accumulation through the extraordinary concentration of income and wealth. Considering that the political stance of Marini is clearly revolutionary, the proposals are valid only as an exegesis of his thought, and are not presented as a result of its theoretical propositions. The idea is to associate superexploitation and concentration of wealth, showing that the sui generis nature of peripheral capitalism represents a concentration of wealth and income much higher than that observed in developed capitalism.

Actor-agency and institutional complexity: multinational corporations’ strategies to combat the framework convention on tobacco control in Brazil

“…In fact, dependency scholars would argue, the imperialist metropole has used its foreign trade and capital to further penetrate the Latin American economy and use its productive potential much more efficiently and exhaustively for its own benefit than the colonial metropole was ever able to do (Frank, 1980). Latin America's incorporation into the capitalist economic system is based on the overexploitation of labour (Almeida Filho, 2013;Marini, 1973). International exploitation does not have to be enforced by political and military force because the reproducibility of economic relations perpetuates it.…”

“…Latin America’s incorporation into the capitalist economic system is based on the overexploitation of labour (Almeida Filho, 2013; Marini, 1973). International exploitation does not have to be enforced by political and military force because the reproducibility of economic relations perpetuates it.…”

“…From 1964 onwards, the collaboration between the Brazilian military elite and foreign capital involved offering foreign monopolies a partnership in worker exploitation and commercial expansion, leading to the denationalisation of industry and the growth of financial capital (Marini, 1972). Marini speaks of superexploitation to denote “the structural conditions of capitalism in Latin America, which tend to reproduce” (Almeida Filho, 2013, p. 4).…”

Nature of the state economic expanded functions in the Brazilian economy*

“…In other works , 2013 we specifically discussed this interpretation, its consequences and update requirements. In this article, we will focus only on a note that follows their propositions: Marini sustain that super-exploitation is a major determinant of the extraordinarily concentrated distribution of income and wealth of Latin America's economies compared to other regions.…”