Os efeitos das transições sistêmicas de hegemonia e do capitalismo para as capacidades materiais brasileiras: um mapeamento do processo de mudança das componentes de poder do Brasil (1991-2018)

Abstract

The main objective of this monography is to characterize Brazil's structural adaptation to the ongoing systemic transitions. The transitions are hegemonic, between China and the United States, and that of capitalism, materialized here in the cycles of systemic accumulation and the techno-economic paradigms. The problem that guided the research was: what are the effects of systemic transitions of hegemony and capitalism between the United States and China on Brazilian material capacities? The main hypothesis was that the systemic redistribution of power impacted the change in the components of Brazilian material capacities through the diffusion of power. This monography is academically justified by the existence of a gap between the research that deals with Brazilian technological capabilities and those that deal with Brazil's role in systemic dynamics, as well as the gap generated by the absence of syntheses about systemic power structures. The method used was that of comparative-historical analysis, through an intra-case comparison which used the process-tracing tool. The identification of the conditions of the process, mapped in the third chapter (3), derived from the theoretical debate promoted in second chapter (2), with the monography being structured in two chapters, besides the introduction (1) and conclusion (4). The second chapter aimed to identify the structural constraints of the systemic transitions of hegemony and capitalism. The third chapter aimed to identify the relationship between systemic transitions and Brazilian material capacities, by process-tracing the change in its components. The research results indicate that the characteristics of the transitions and the consequent diffusion of power affect the components of Brazil's capacities and, consequently, their systemic adaptation. This relationship was verified by the identification of the change in the Brazilian exports content, which no longer predominantly consisted of manufactured goods, but of primary goods since 2009, the same year that China surpassed the United States as the main destination of Brazilian exports. Here, I understand this as a modification in the components of Brazil’s material capacities, considering the role of technology as a component of power and, consequently, producer of asymmetries through unequal processes of exclusion and inclusion. The variation in the technological intensity of the Brazilian export agenda impacts its insertion in the hierarchies produced by the structures of polarity and capitalism, since the reduction in the value added by the Brazilian production reduces its possibilities of dominating the techno-economic paradigm and, subsequently, of accumulating enough power to rise in these hierarchies.