ABSTRACT
Focusing on historical junctures and related intellectual debates, this chapter offers an overview of Brazilian development strategies vis-à-vis its changing peripheral condition within the capitalist world economy. In parallel with empirical predicaments, an ongoing tradition of Brazil’s political economy and its role in the world market have flourished since the mid 20th century onwards, ranging from economic nationalisms (particularly advocated by the Superior Institute of Brazilian Studies (ISEB) or the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB)) to a cosmopolitan approach espoused by the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC); from Marxist dependency theories to neoliberal realignments with the Washington Consensus; from the new developmentalism to today’s far-right turn back to ‘lumpen development’. The chapter shows that Brazil and other Latin American countries have a rich intellectual tradition that must be properly reassessed in order to face current economic and social challenges.
