Brazilian Foreign Policy and Subimperialism During the Political Transition of the 1980s

A Review and Reapplication of Marini's Theory

Bibliographic Data

ID4501041
AuthorsDaniel Zirker (0000-0002-9281-0689, corresponding author)
Year1994
Volume21
Issue1
Pages115-131
Publication date1994-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLatin American Perspectives (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0094-582X • E-ISSN: 1552-678X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0094582x9402100108
OpenAlexW2062973933
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited24

Some observers in the 1960s and 1970s, principal among them the Brazilian sociologist Ruy Mauro Marini, argued that Brazil had achieved a kind of local economic and political power, albeit with fundamental structural limitations, that was analogous in some respects-while subordinateto the hemispheric economic predominance of the United States. Speaking from a Marxian perspective, Marini dubbed this situation subimperialism (1965; 1969; 1972; 1973; 1978). His analysis emphasized the ideological premeditation with which the Brazilian military had adopted the role of a center from which imperialist expansion in Latin America [would] radiate (1965: 21); it appears to have anticipated the Marxian state-centered approach stressing the relative autonomy of the state that arose from the seminal debate between Nicos Poulantzas (1969; 1976) and Ralph Miliband (1970; 1973). Furthermore, in its emphasis upon the mechanics of protracted economic growth and concomitant socioeconomic stagnation, Marini's work profoundly addressed the realidade brasileira. Marini's theory identified Brazil's development as a manifestation of imperialism. This study represents an analysis of the civilian political transition of the mid-1980s in the light of that interpretation. Given the conspiratorial and reactionary character of Brazilian politics in the 1960s (i.e., military dictatorship), the broader implications of Marini's interpretation may have been obscured by its predictability. The persistence of subimperialism in the civilian transitional period, however, suggests its profoundly systemic nature. Of particular concern here is foreign policy, arguably a central dynamic of subimperialism and in the case of Brazil its most visible aspect

Democracy · Development economics · Dictatorship · Economic history · Economics · Foreign policy · Ideology · Interpretation (philosophy) · Latin Americans · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Reactionary · Sociology · State (computer science) · Brazilian History and Foreign Policy · Law · Philosophy

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