Capitalismo no Brasil: A Transição da Era Vargas ao Neoliberalismo | Marcio Pochmann

How did the evolution of Capitalism in Brazil shape our social and economic structure between the 1930s and 1980s? In this video, economist Marcio Pochmann analyzes the major historical inflections that transformed the country from a backward agrarian-exporting society into a complex urban-industrial wage-earning society. In this fourth lesson of the mini-course, we discuss the structural transition of Brazilian capitalism from the perspective of population governance and the construction of the developmentalist national state. The analysis begins with the exhaustion of the Old Republic—a period in which the social question was treated as a "police matter" and the right to vote did not reach 5% of the population due to census restrictions and illiteracy—towards the emergence of the 1930 Revolution. Based on the theoretical formulation of Florestan Fernandes, the 1930 movement is characterized as a "preventive counter-revolution," operated by the elites to absorb popular pressures before a systemic rupture occurred. The reorganization of the Brazilian State was structured on four fundamental pillars: The repositioning of Brazil in the international division of labor, abandoning the gold standard and moving closer to the orbit of the US dollar. The carrying out of a thorough audit of the external debt between 1931 and 1933, which identified irregularities in approximately 40% of the contracts. The centralization of foreign exchange monopolized by the Bank of Brazil. A progressive tax and administrative reform, which reduced dependence on import taxes and instituted taxation on income and consumption, in addition to establishing the modern bureaucratic foundations through the DASP (Department of Public Service Administration) and the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics). The research demonstrates, through comparative census data from 1940 and 1980, the strong process of structuring the labor market. While overall employment grew by 2.6% annually, formal salaried employment jumped at an average rate of 6.2% per year, causing employment with a signed work contract to increase from 12% to almost 50% of total employment. This institutional advancement consolidated a true urban "wage-earning society," accompanied by a significant increase in average life expectancy, which rose from less than 34 years in the 1930s to more than 60 years in the early 1980s. However, it is pointed out that this capitalist modernization tended towards conservatism by postponing classic structural reforms: agrarian reform, taxation on large profits, and the real universalization of social protection (since access to health and social security remained tied to formal registration). The debate recovers Milton Santos' theory of urban economic circuits to illustrate the coexistence of an upper industrialized circuit and a lower subsistence circuit. This scenario marginalized the peripheries and paved the way for the resurgence of profound social contradictions, which culminated in the reconfiguration of popular resistance from the late 1970s onwards, encompassing the new trade unionism, the student movement, and community-based organizations. Marcio Pochmann is an economist, researcher, and licensed collaborating professor at the Institute of Economics of the State University of Campinas (IE-Unicamp). With extensive academic production focused on labor economics, social inequality, and economic development, he has presided over nationally relevant institutions such as the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA) and the Perseu Abramo Foundation, and currently serves as president of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). Full Course:    • O novo sujeiro coletivo, com Marcio Pochmann   00:00 Opening of the fourth meeting and certification dynamics 02:15 The transformation of capitalism at the turn of the 21st century 05:11 The old social question inherited from the slave-owning order 08:59 The 1930 Revolution from the perspective of preventive counter-revolution 12:56 Geopolitical repositioning and the end of the gold standard 15:08 Audit and renegotiation of the external debt (1931-1933) 19:22 The institutional foundation of IBGE and territorial planning 24:11 Accelerated urbanization and the construction of mass society 37:03 The deliberate postponement of the three classic reforms of capitalism 01:05:36 The emptying of politics and the Subordination to neoliberalism #politicaleconomy #historyofbrazil #ieunicamp #criticalthinking #capitalism