Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira - Böcker

The Rise and Fall of Neoliberal Rentier Capitalism is an account of the political economy of capitalism in the 20th and 21st centuries. Capitalism is an unjust form of economic organisation; it is a culture of exacerbated individualism justified by the glorification of individual competition. Today, after 40 years of neoliberalism, capitalism faces again a legitimation crisis. The book discusses capitalism after two revolutions - the Organisational Revolution and the Democratic Revolution. It views capitalism since the New Deal in the US and the post-war as a progressive and developmental era and the Neoliberal Turn as the change from social democracy to radical and regressive global neoliberalism, which was a regressive time for almost forty years. In the Neoliberal Years, rentiers replaced entrepreneurs in the command of the economy and called on the financiers to manage their wealth and serve as organic intellectuals, and both mounted an attack to the state, which is the main capitalist institution. The global crisis and, in 2020, the Covid pandemic showed that the state remains the nations' resource of last instance. The transition of China from statism to an active developmentalism resulted in an extraordinary growth. Given such realities, in 2021 we saw the collapse of neoliberalism, and in the United States, a Developmental Turn - the state is back in the economy.The transition phase we live in is characterised by three main forces - economic liberalism, managerialism, and democracy. Economic liberalism is the great defeated, managerialism became powerful and is developmental, and democracy is the stronger force. It was attacked by neoliberalism and is now being attacked by right-wing populism, but resisted and resists brilliantly, proving that it was a conquest of the popular classes that became a universal value counting on the support of all social classes.

Building the Republican State is an insightful analysis of the new state and the new public management that is emerging in the twenty-first century. It presents the historical stages that led to the modern state, identifies a crisis of the nation-state and its origins in a fiscal crisis and in globalization, and situates public management in the last phase - the social-liberal and republican state. To understand such stages the author develops the theory of republican rights, as a fourth type of citizenship right, after the civil, the political, and the social rights. The book contains an original model of reform, in which the roles of the state, the forms of ownership, the types of public administration, and the organizational-institutions indicated in each situation are put together. Additionally, the book discusses the political theories behind the reform, and its political implications. Throughout the book, the author underlines the complementary roles of markets and the state, and the importance of building state capacity to assure administrative efficiency, always having in count the 'democratic constraint', i.e., the prevalence of the political over the economic realm. This is essential reading both for those studying political theory and government reform, as well as for anyone interested in state politics and globalization.

Developmental Macroeconomics: Access to Demand, the Exchange Rate and Growth offers a new approach to development economics and macroeconomics. It is a Keynesian-structuralist approach to economics applied to middle income countries that emphasizes the strategic role of demand in creating investment opportunities that are essential to economic development. It also explores crucial links between short-term full employment and financial stability with medium term growth. While this book emphasizes the central role played by the exchange rate it does not ignore other macroeconomic prices (the interest rate, the inflation rate and the profit rate). It develops a group of concepts and models and blends them together in the model of the tendency to the cyclical overvaluation of the exchange rate in developing countries. According to this model, the exchange rate tends to be chronically overvalued. In so far that this is true the exchange rate ceases to be just a short-term problem to be treated by macroeconomics and becomes central to development economics and should be crucially oriented to manage the exchange rate and keep it competitive at the industrial equilibrium level. The book closes with the presentation of new developmentalism – a national development strategy based on the system of models previously discussed that is both an alternative to old national-developmentalism and to liberal orthodoxy or the Washington consensus.

The 2008 global financial crisis took the world by surprise, not least because politicians, businessmen and economists believed that they had learned crucial lessons from the Great Depression of the 1930s. As a direct result of deregulated financial markets, financial crises occurred in both developed and developing economies. However, this volume argues that in the most recent crisis developing countries suffered less, and that financial policy and regulation played a crucial part in this.The contributors to this volume explore the alternative development paradigm that has been gaining credence since the Asian crisis, known as new developmentalism. New developmentalism is embodied in the following principles: exchange rate responsibility or growth with domestic savings, fiscal responsibility, and the assignment of a strategic role for the state. New developmentalism is a set of values, ideas, institutions and economic policies through which, in the early 21st century, developing countries have sought to catch up with developed countries. This book examines the global financial crisis, the financial regulatory problem, with particular emphasis on Brazil, and the alternative policies that derive from new developmentalism. This volume will be of interest to scholars and policymakers working in the areas of globalization, financial regulation and development studies.

The 2008 global financial crisis took the world by surprise, not least because politicians, businessmen and economists believed that they had learned crucial lessons from the Great Depression of the 1930s. As a direct result of deregulated financial markets, financial crises occurred in both developed and developing economies. However, this volume argues that in the most recent crisis developing countries suffered less, and that financial policy and regulation played a crucial part in this.The contributors to this volume explore the alternative development paradigm that has been gaining credence since the Asian crisis, known as new developmentalism. New developmentalism is embodied in the following principles: exchange rate responsibility or growth with domestic savings, fiscal responsibility, and the assignment of a strategic role for the state. New developmentalism is a set of values, ideas, institutions and economic policies through which, in the early 21st century, developing countries have sought to catch up with developed countries. This book examines the global financial crisis, the financial regulatory problem, with particular emphasis on Brazil, and the alternative policies that derive from new developmentalism. This volume will be of interest to scholars and policymakers working in the areas of globalization, financial regulation and development studies.

Developmental Macroeconomics: Access to Demand, the Exchange Rate and Growth offers a new approach to development economics and macroeconomics. It is a Keynesian-structuralist approach to economics applied to middle income countries that emphasizes the strategic role of demand in creating investment opportunities that are essential to economic development. It also explores crucial links between short-term full employment and financial stability with medium term growth. While this book emphasizes the central role played by the exchange rate it does not ignore other macroeconomic prices (the interest rate, the inflation rate and the profit rate). It develops a group of concepts and models and blends them together in the model of the tendency to the cyclical overvaluation of the exchange rate in developing countries. According to this model, the exchange rate tends to be chronically overvalued. In so far that this is true the exchange rate ceases to be just a short-term problem to be treated by macroeconomics and becomes central to development economics and should be crucially oriented to manage the exchange rate and keep it competitive at the industrial equilibrium level. The book closes with the presentation of new developmentalism – a national development strategy based on the system of models previously discussed that is both an alternative to old national-developmentalism and to liberal orthodoxy or the Washington consensus.

Globalization and Competition explains why some middle-income countries, principally those in Asia, grow fast while others are not successful. The author criticizes both old-style developmentalism and the economics of the Washington Consensus. He argues instead for a 'new developmentalism' or third approach that builds on a national development strategy. This approach differs from the neoliberal strategy that rich nations propose to emerging economies principally on macroeconomic grounds. Developing countries face a key obstacle to growth, namely, the tendency to overvaluate foreign exchange. Instead of neutralizing it, the policy that rich countries promote mistakenly seeks growth through foreign savings, which causes additional appreciation of the national currency and often results in financial crises rather than genuine investment.

Globalization and Competition explains why some middle-income countries, principally those in Asia, grow fast while others are not successful. The author criticizes both old-style developmentalism and the economics of the Washington Consensus. He argues instead for a 'new developmentalism' or third approach that builds on a national development strategy. This approach differs from the neoliberal strategy that rich nations propose to emerging economies principally on macroeconomic grounds. Developing countries face a key obstacle to growth, namely, the tendency to overvaluate foreign exchange. Instead of neutralizing it, the policy that rich countries promote mistakenly seeks growth through foreign savings, which causes additional appreciation of the national currency and often results in financial crises rather than genuine investment.

This 1993 book assesses differing experiences of the transition to democracy in the countries of Southern Europe, Latin America and Eastern Europe. The authors try to determine what the conditions for successful transitions are. They argue against the 'big bang' approach, espoused by many advisors to reforming countries, on the grounds that this approach bypasses the newly formed institutions of democracy and, ultimately, may undermine the necessary consensus to support painful economic reforms. The most successful reforms, they argue, have been those agreed upon through a process of democratic negotiation. A new democracy must offer politically important groups incentives to process their demands within the democratic institutional framework; otherwise, their support will be tenuous and the system may collapse under the strains incurred by painful economic reforms.

This 1993 book assesses differing experiences of the transition to democracy in the countries of Southern Europe, Latin America and Eastern Europe. The authors try to determine what the conditions for successful transitions are. They argue against the 'big bang' approach, espoused by many advisors to reforming countries, on the grounds that this approach bypasses the newly formed institutions of democracy and, ultimately, may undermine the necessary consensus to support painful economic reforms. The most successful reforms, they argue, have been those agreed upon through a process of democratic negotiation. A new democracy must offer politically important groups incentives to process their demands within the democratic institutional framework; otherwise, their support will be tenuous and the system may collapse under the strains incurred by painful economic reforms.