Alfredo Saad Filho
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 822549 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Alfredo Saad Filho |
| PRENOMES | Alfredo |
| SOBRENOME | Saad Filho |
| ASSINATURA | FILHO A S |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6625-2273 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 71 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 456 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 71 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1993 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 13 |
Marx sobre o dinheiro, a dívida pública e o gerenciamento da acumulação
This article offers a Marxist analysis of forms of value in capitalist economies, and their implications for accumulation, (in)stability, and economic policy. The study argues, first, that there is an intrinsic tendency towards an increasing complexity of value forms in capitalism. Examination of the development of these forms of value helps to map the contradictions of accumulation at increasingly complex and concrete levels of analysis, and tra…
A economia política do fascismo neoliberal
Este artigo examina análises liberais e marxistas do fascismo, delineia criticamente os debates sobre o “retorno do fascismo”, e considera se o fascismo pode emergir repetidamente ao longo do tempo e em diferentes contextos políticos e geográficos. Análises interdisciplinares estão, em geral, mais bem posicionadas para interpretar a ascensão do fascismo devido à sua abordagem integrativa, reunindo conceitos e argumentos advindos da economia, polí…
Political Economy of Renewables Capitalism
There is a growing tendency to argue that the capitalist mode of production is fundamentally incompatible with climate stability and that ‘system change’ is needed to prevent apocalyptic ‘climate change’. This position overstates capitalism's dependence on fossil fuels. Rather than fossil fuels per se, capitalism requires abundant, secure and predictable energy sources. Furthermore, capitalism cannot postpone the stabilization of the earth's clim…
Public intellectuals and the construction of anti-neoliberal hegemony
This article reviews the construction of an anti-neoliberal (counter-)hegemony in Bolivia in the early twenty-first century, focusing on the distinctive contribution of Grupo Comuna, a small but highly influential collective of public intellectuals and activists. That counter-hegemony was instrumental in changing the country’s constitution and addressing entrenched features of Bolivia’s social and economic structure. The uniqueness of Bolivia’s e…
Critical Engagements with Alberto Toscano’s Late Fascism
This article outlines the main claims in Toscano’s book and stresses points of agreement. The article also highlights limitations in Toscano’s “metacommentary” on fascism. In particular, by concentrating on the excavation of insights from earlier literatures, the book shifts focus away from the contingent aspects of fascism and the foundations of the emerging neoliberal fascism, which is grounded on the limitations and contradictions of neolibera…
From Value to Uneven Development
John Weeks (1941-2020) was one of the most prominent Marxist economists of his generation. His writings inspired many activists and socialist economists around the world. This book brings together a selection of his writings engaging with and developing the Marxist tradition. These essays examine theoretical issues, directly building on Karl Marx's work, as well as practical and political issues, engaging with transformative and revolutionary act…
The Bolivian pluriverse
This article reviews an important experience of pluriversal political activity in Bolivia, through the prism of the theoretical and political contributions of Grupo Comuna, a local organization of scholar activists and public intellectuals. Comuna deployed Marxist categories to examine, and intervene upon, the dilemmas of the pluriverse and the social and political challenges facing Bolivia's original peoples (pueblos originarios). The article ex…
Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated
Recent declarations of the end of neoliberalism in the United Kingdom, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic, are underpinned by diffuse and unstructured understandings of the neoliberal state. We argue that state intervention is both necessary and unavoidable under neoliberalism. This article shows that the 'market-based' reforms and the 'rollback of the state' that overtly characterise neoliberalism are heavily reliant upon public policy and e…
From Climate Change to Sustainable and Inclusive Economies
Climate change and neoliberalism are threat multipliers: they combine risks, increase instability and penalise disproportionately poor countries and poor people by virtue of their greater vulnerability disruption. This article examines the complex relationships between neoliberalism and climate change, and outlines a democratic economic strategy (DES) to address the transition from neoliberalism to a more dynamic, progressive and egalitarian syst…
Brazilian Democracy Facing Authoritarian Neoliberalism
Growth and Change in Neoliberal Capitalism
Growth and Change in Neoliberal Capitalism brings together selected essays written by Alfredo Saad-Filho, one of the most prominent Marxist political economists today. This book offers a rich analysis of long-term economic development in the current stage of capitalism, the new relations of dependence between countries, the prospects for poor countries, and the progressive alternatives to neoliberalism. The volume also provides a detailed set of …
Destroying Democracy
Authoritarian developmentalism
We are amidst what can be termed an ongoing authoritarian turn in global politics. While Trump, one of its important examples, is no longer in office in the United States, there remain many countries under the sway of authoritarian leaders, such as Turkey, Egypt, Brazil, Hungary and the Philippines. The policies of Trump, Sisi, Bolsonaro, Orban and Duterte can be characterized as authoritarian developmentalism. Although they have come to power th…
Neoliberalism and the Pandemic
This paper offers a political economy interpretation of the covid -19 pandemic, framed around its relationship to the dynamics, contradictions and limitations of global neoliberalism. It argues that the pandemic emerged in a context of growing inequalities and deepening crises in neoliberal economies and their political systems, and that the pandemic is likely to reinforce the exclusionary tendencies in the current phase of capitalism, with detri…
Brazilian Democracy Facing Authoritarian Neoliberalism
This article offers an interpretation of the election of Jair Bolsonaro as President of Brazil, based on the examination of its three political drivers. First the economic and political crisis of global neoliberalism, and their implications for developing countries. Second, the cycles of the Brazilian left, which culminated in the rise and decline of the Workers' Party (PT). Third, the global rise of an authoritarian modality of neoliberalism in …
The Political Economy of Neoliberalism in Latin America
Endgame
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Celso Furtado and the Myth of Economic Development
This article introduces two previously unpublished working papers by the Brazilian economist Celso Furtado (1920–2004). Following a brief outline of his life and ideas, the arguments in the two papers are examined, taking into account their context and place in Furtado’s evolving body of work. These two papers represent a crucial turning point in Furtado’s thinking, highlighting his critical perspective on (under)development and laying the basis …
The corruption of democracy
Introduction
The Nature of the PT Governments
Varieties of Neoliberalism in Brazil (2003-2019)
The main feature of capital accumulation in Brazil during the administrations led by Luís Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers' Party-PT) was the continuity of neoliberalism of two varieties: inclusive (2003-2006) and developmental (2006-2013). The PT's attachment to neoliberalism was mitigated by the party's (shifting) commitment to (mild) developmental outcomes, redistribution of income (at the margi…
From Covid-19 to the End of Neoliberalism
We found ourselves in a transformed world sometime in the month of March In half the world we had eerily empty streets, closed shops and unusually clear skies, with climbing death tolls being reported daily: something unprecedented was unfolding before our eyes The news about the economy was especially alarming: the COVID-19 pandemic triggered the sharpest and deepest economic contraction in the history of capitalism (see Roubini, 2020) To paraph…
Anti-Capitalism
‘A timely and worthwhile project ... will fill a major hole in the currently available literature.’ Professor Duncan Foley, Professor of Economics, New School University, NY Political protests against neoliberal globalisation, corporate power and the inequities of contemporary capitalism are increasing all the time. Demonstrations in Seattle, Prague, Genoa and elsewhere have fuelled the debate on the possibility of a radically different future. T…
Value and Crisis
Value and Crisis brings together selected essays written by Alfredo Saad-Filho, one of the most prominent Marxist political economists today. This book examines the labour theory of value from a rich and innovative perspective, from which fresh insights and new perspectives are derived, with applications for the nature of neoliberalism, financialisation, inflation, monetary policy, and the contradictions, limitations and crises of contemporary ca…
Thirteen Things You Need to Know About Neoliberalism
This article examines the theories and practices of neoliberalism across 13 aspects of ('things you need to know about') neoliberalism. They include the argument that neoliberalism is not reducible to a cogent ideology or a change in economic or social policies, nor is it primarily about a shift in the relationship between the state and the market or between workers and capital in general, or finance in particular. Instead, neoliberalism is a sta…
Authoritarian developmentalism
We are amidst what can be termed an ongoing authoritarian turn in global politics. While Trump, one of its important examples, is no longer in office in the United States, there remain many countries under the sway of authoritarian leaders, such as Turkey, Egypt, Brazil, Hungary and the Philippines. The policies of Trump, Sisi, Bolsonaro, Orban and Duterte can be characterized as authoritarian developmentalism. Although they have come to power th…
Da economia política à política econômica
From political economy to economic policy: The neo-developmentalism and the Lula administration.This article critically reviews the design of neo-developmentalist economic policies in Brazil, in the first half of the last decade, and their relationship with the economic policies of the Lula administration after 2006.Paradoxically, the neo-developmentalist policies were implemented jointly with the main (neoliberal) macroeconomic policies which ha…
Mass Protests under 'Left Neoliberalism
The mass movements in June and July 2013 were the largest and most significant protests in Brazil for a generation, and they have shaken up the country's political system. They expressed a wide range of demands about public service provision and governance, and concerns with corruption. Their social base was broad, starting with students and left-wing activists and including, later, many middle-class protesters and specific categories of workers.…
From Covid-19 to the End of Neoliberalism
We found ourselves in a transformed world sometime in the month of March In half the world we had eerily empty streets, closed shops and unusually clear skies, with climbing death tolls being reported daily: something unprecedented was unfolding before our eyes The news about the economy was especially alarming: the COVID-19 pandemic triggered the sharpest and deepest economic contraction in the history of capitalism (see Roubini, 2020) To paraph…
The corruption of democracy
Neoliberal economic policies in Brazil (1994–2005)
Social Policy for Neoliberalism
The Programa Bolsa Família (PBF) is one of the largest conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes in the world. CCTs have been described as a 'magic bullet' for development, and PBF is widely regarded as an exemplary programme. Examination of its conceptual underpinnings, features, impact and limitations shows that PBF provides substantial income support to the poorest. However, PBF is also self-limiting and it can offer only limited long-term ga…
Varieties of Neoliberalism in Brazil (2003-2019)
The main feature of capital accumulation in Brazil during the administrations led by Luís Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers' Party-PT) was the continuity of neoliberalism of two varieties: inclusive (2003-2006) and developmental (2006-2013). The PT's attachment to neoliberalism was mitigated by the party's (shifting) commitment to (mild) developmental outcomes, redistribution of income (at the margi…
Democracy against Neoliberalism
Procedural (formal, liberal, capitalist or bourgeois) democracy is the political form of neoliberalism, and it dominates political thought and state practice today. This modality of management of class relations is currently in crisis, expressed through the evacuation of politics, the erosion of civil liberties and the emergence of authoritarian governance. This article offers a Marxist critique of neoliberal democracy, concluding that neoliberal…
Neo-Developmentalism and the Challenges of Economic Policy-Making under Dilma Rousseff
This article reviews the emergence of neo-developmentalist economic policies in Brazil, in the early 2000s, as a heterodox alternative to neoliberalism. These policies were implemented in the second Lula administration (2006-10), and continued under Dilma Rousseff. However, neo-developmentalism has not simply replaced neoliberalism; rather, these prima facie incompatible policy frameworks have been combined, and the ensuing policies have achieved…
State, State Institutions, and Political Power in Brazil
The political conflicts during the Workers' Party administrations led by Luís Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff have been driven by disputes between two fractions of the country's bourgeoisie: the internal and the internationalized bourgeoisie. Their ideologies, policies, institutions, and forms of political representation have determined government policies and outcomes. These processes have unfolded within an authoritarian democracy whose…
Brazil beyond Lula
A review of the achievements of the Lula administration and an examination of the contrasting political and social programs that disputed the Brazilian presidential elections in October 2010 reveal that there has been significant progress toward the consolidation of a social democratic welfare state in Brazil and that further progress is possible but far from guaranteed under the new administration
The Limits of Pragmatism
Under favorable external circumstances, the pragmatic political and economic strategy of Brazil's Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers' Party-PT) helped to secure short-term political stability, boosted growth, and supported an unprecedented distribution of income. However, it also meant that the PT had to accommodate to rather than transform the constraints on growth in Brazil and that stability would involve unwieldy political alliances preventin…
Concrete and Abstract Labour in Marx's Theory of Value
This paper presents an alternative reading of Marx's theory of value, which overcomes the dichotomy between production and circulation that characterizes several other approaches. This reading recognises that the subject of Capital is the capitalist economy, and it considers the relationship between labour and value from the viewpoint of the normalisation, synchronisation and homogenisation of labour. The formal possibility of existence of valuel…
Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated
Recent declarations of the end of neoliberalism in the United Kingdom, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic, are underpinned by diffuse and unstructured understandings of the neoliberal state. We argue that state intervention is both necessary and unavoidable under neoliberalism. This article shows that the 'market-based' reforms and the 'rollback of the state' that overtly characterise neoliberalism are heavily reliant upon public policy and e…
Lula and the Continuity of Neoliberalism in Brazil
Endgame
TEST 02 - Elsevier's Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Search and access research from the science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities fields
Curses, Diseases and Other Resource Confusions
Natural resource rents, development assistance and unrequited foreign exchange inflows such as remittances relax the balance of payments constraint on economic growth. The failure of some governments to translate these resources into successful development has been attributed to an affliction called ‘Dutch disease’, or, more ominously, to a ‘curse’ associated with the availability of natural resources. This paper examines the disease/curse analys…
Life beyond the Washington Consensus
This article reviews the ‘pro-poor’ macroeconomic policy alternative to the Washington consensus. The pro-poor approach draws heavily on heterodox economic theory, and offers a compelling view of an alternative economic strategy oriented primarily to the satisfaction of the basic needs of the majority of the population, the equitable distribution of income, wealth and power, and the preservation of macroeconomic stability. These aims point to a s…
Brazil
This article offers a political economy interpretation of the mass protests that took place in Brazil in June—July 2013. This interpretation is based on a review of two development strategies—import-substituting industrialization and neoliberalism— and the class structures associated with them. Examining them helps to locate the sources of current social and political conflicts in the country, and the demands of rival social groups. These strateg…
The ‘Rise of the South’
This article offers a political economy review of the literatures and the empirical evidence concerning the ‘Rise of the South’. The study focuses on global convergence (in the long-term, in the last 30 years, and in the aftermath of the 2008 global crisis), economic decoupling between developing and advanced economies, and the economic strategies which may help catching-up, especially the ‘flying geese’ paradigm and industrial policies supportin…
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory
This article explains the context of Lula's election for the Brazilian presidency, and the scope for progressive economic and social change in the country. We argue that although the ruling coalition is on the political left, the new administration is not, and it will face grave difficulties to achieve traditional left objectives, including universal citizenship and greater equality of income and wealth
Celso Furtado and the Myth of Economic Development
This article introduces two previously unpublished working papers by the Brazilian economist Celso Furtado (1920–2004). Following a brief outline of his life and ideas, the arguments in the two papers are examined, taking into account their context and place in Furtado’s evolving body of work. These two papers represent a crucial turning point in Furtado’s thinking, highlighting his critical perspective on (under)development and laying the basis …
Marx 200
Marxist political economy is alive and well, and not just because of the habitual turn to Marx in response to any crisis of capitalism. Both through Capital and through the continuing evolution of Marxism, Marxist political economy offers valuable insights that can illuminate the modalities of social and economic reproduction and the relationships between (different aspects of) the economic and the non-economic. Marxism’s presence has been felt t…
Labor, Money, and “Labour-Money”
A hundred guinea premium is offered to the man who may be able most effectually to refute my arguments-John Gray Lectures on the Nature and Use of Money All the illusions of the monetary system arise from the failure to perceive that money, though a physical object with distinct properties, represents a social relation of production-Marx A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy Throughout his mature work Marx often criticizes the “Rica…
A Note on Marx's Analysis of the Composition of Capital
Saad-Filho draws on Marx to make clear that there are three distinct compositions of capital: Technical (TCC); Value (VCC); and Organic (OCC). He demonstrates that the distinction between them can be traced back to the relations between the spheres of production and circulation, and argues that it is central for an analysis of capital accumulation and technical change based on the labour theory of value
Concrete and Abstract Labour in Marx's Theory of Value
This paper presents an alternative reading of Marx's theory of value, which overcomes the dichotomy between production and circulation that characterizes several other approaches. This reading recognises that the subject of Capital is the capitalist economy, and it considers the relationship between labour and value from the viewpoint of the normalisation, synchronisation and homogenisation of labour. The formal possibility of existence of valuel…
The political economy of agrarian transition in Mozambique
(1997). The political economy of agrarian transition in Mozambique. Journal of Contemporary African Studies: Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 191-218
Re-reading both Hegel and Marx
The "new dialectic" offers a new interpretation of Marx's method. Its most salient feature is the emphasis on certain aspects of Hegelian logic for the interpretation of Marx's writings, especially The Capital. This article systematically presents the "new dialectic" argument and the main problems with this approach. The latter derive from the assumption that the richness of the concrete is contained in the commodity and can be revealed only thro…
An Alternative Reading of the Transformation of Values into Prices of Production
This article analyses the transformation of values into prices of production from the point of view of differences in the organic composition of capital. Marx's transformation has two stages. In the first, the value of the means of production used up is irrelevant; in the second, the economy is analysed at the level of price. The transformation helps to explain the distribution of labour and surplus value across the economy, and substantiates the…
Redefining the Role of the Bourgeoisie in Dependent Capitalist Development
In a recent article, Geisa Maria Rocha (1994: 73) examines privatization and liberalization in Brazil in an attempt bring back dependency theory as a framework for explaining outcomes of growth strategies recommended by liberal neoclassical/modernization paradigm in its current guise of neoliberalism. Rocha's argument is based on a review of Brazilian foreign debt crisis and its links with privatization program. She advances two main propositions…
Land of lost opportunities
Este artigo analisa as razoes do fracasso da coletivização da agricultura em Moçambique (1975-83). Duas explicações são propostas; primeiro, as políticas de socialização da Frelimo eram inconsistentes por refletirem um compromisso impossível entre visões dualistas e nao-dualistas da relação entre os setores camponês e " moderno" da economia. Segundo, os camponeses pobres e médios resistiram ativamente as políticas coletivistas do governo. O confl…
Financial Liberalisation, Currency Instability and Crisis in Brazil
THIS PAPER PROVIDES AN INTERPRETATION of the Brazilian Real (stabilisation) plan, and its recent collapse. The plan was designed to maximise Brazil's ability to profit from the exceptional liquidity of the international credit markets, when low interest rates in the industrialised economies (especially the US) facilitated surges in capital flows to a select group of countries, the so-called 'emerging markets.' The general backdrop of the Brazilia…
The Value of Marx
Karl Marx's writings provide a uniquely insightful explanation of the inner workings of capitalism, which other schools of thought generally have difficulty explaining. From this vantage point, Marx's works can help to explain important features and economic problems of our age, and the limits of their possible solutions. For example, the necessity
Reconhecimento social da moeda
Este artigo trata de dois aspectos da inflação: conflito distributivo e o papel do dinheiro extra. Nesse contexto, o artigo discute algumas características do processo inflacionário no Brasil, dificuldades de reprodução da moeda durante o processo inflacionário e quais foram os aspectos que foram resolvidos pelo Plano Real. Por fim, são abordadas as perspectivas do Plano Real
Neomonetarismo Tropical
Este artigo analisa o desempenho da economia brasileira durante os anos 90, à luz da mudança de política neomonetarista implementada de maneira desigual, mas incremental, ao longo desta década. O artigo mostra que essa mudança de política foi associada a, e contribuiu para, uma mudança na estrutura da indústria de transformação, a deterioração financeira do setor público, o aperto da restrição da balança de pagamentos e o aumento da dependência e…
Understanding the Past to Make the Future – An Introduction
New Dawn or False Start in Brazil? The Political Economy of Lula's Election
This article offers a political-economy interpretation of the transformations in the Brazilian economy and society since 1980, concluding with the Presidential election of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in October 2002. Two main issues are considered. First, the transition from rapid growth under import-substituting industrialisation (ISI) to persistent economic stagnation under a new system of accumulation, de ned as ‘new liberalism’. Second, the art…
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory
This article explains the context of Lula's election for the Brazilian presidency, and the scope for progressive economic and social change in the country. We argue that although the ruling coalition is on the political left, the new administration is not, and it will face grave difficulties to achieve traditional left objectives, including universal citizenship and greater equality of income and wealth
Inflation theory
Marxian analyses of inflation tend to fall under three broad categories, those that emphasise primarily the role distributive conflicts, monopoly power, or state intervention on the dynamics of credit money. This article reviews these interpretations, and indicates how they can be integrated. The proposed approach, based on the ‘extra money’ view, departs from the circuit of capital and the endogeneity of credit money in order to explain inflatio…
Transforming the Transformation Problem
The new interpretation (NI) offers a particular understanding of important problems in value theory, especially the value of money and labor power and the structure and dynamics of capitalist accumulation. The NI is to be welcomed for raising these issues but not for the way in which it has dealt with them. Above all, the NI falsely assumes that value is directly and immediately represented by money. The authors propose alternatives that emphasiz…
Towards a pro-poor development strategy for middle-income countries
This paper draws upon Bresser-Pereira and Nakano (2003), in order to outline a pro-poor growth strategy for middle-income countries. This strategy avoids the pitfalls of the neoliberal model implemented in several countries in the aftermath of the 1982 international debt crisis, and is conducive to income distribution and sustainable growth simultaneously
Lula and the Continuity of Neoliberalism in Brazil
Neoliberal economic policies in Brazil (1994–2005)
Life beyond the Washington Consensus
This article reviews the ‘pro-poor’ macroeconomic policy alternative to the Washington consensus. The pro-poor approach draws heavily on heterodox economic theory, and offers a compelling view of an alternative economic strategy oriented primarily to the satisfaction of the basic needs of the majority of the population, the equitable distribution of income, wealth and power, and the preservation of macroeconomic stability. These aims point to a s…
Production vs. Realisation in Marx's Theory of Value
In a review of our work, Kincaid suggests that we are 'productivist', reducing interpretation of Marx and capitalism to production at the expense of the relatively independent role that can be played by the value-form in general and by the money-form in particular. In response, we argue that he distorts interpretation of our work through this prism of production versus exchange, unduly emphasises the independence of exchange to the point of under…
Twixt Ricardo and Rubin
Our final instalment in the debate with Jim Kincaid argues that his value-analysis suffers from weaknesses associated with both Ricardian and Rubinesque (mis-)interpretations of Marx. These approaches are methodologically flawed, because value-theory does not draw upon externally imposed theories or standards of logic or evidence to check the conceptual or empirical validity of its approach to the understanding of capitalism. Rather, Marxian valu…
A atualidade da Economia Política marxista
O artigo sugere uma interpretação de classe da Economia Política Marxista (EPM). Ele examina quatro aspectos principais da EPM: método, valor, classe e as implicações da teoria do valor para a análise de aspectos selecionados do capitalismo atual, incluindo a concorrência, a difusão internacional do capitalismo, a globalização, a teoria das crises, a análise das classes sociais e o ambiente. Esse artigo conclui que a EPM pode ser extremamente rel…
Growth, Poverty and Inequality
Political science (55 obras) · Economics (51 obras) · Politics (40 obras) · Law (37 obras) · Political economy (36 obras) · Economic Theory and Policy (34 obras) · Sociology (31 obras) · Political Economy and Marxism (30 obras) · Capitalism (19 obras) · Law (17 obras)