Markets and Political Power in Contemporary Brazil: A Weberian Analysis
ABSTRACT
This conference examined the creation of commercial institutions and political power in Portugal and Brazil as described by the Brazilian jurist Raymundo Faoro (1925–2003) in his book Os Donos do Poder (The Owners of Power). In his account of the Brazilian patrimonial state, state bureaucrats succeeded in preventing the consolidation of a proper commercial society in the country until the middle of the twentieth century. This conference offered an opportunity to interpret his thesis through the lens of Max Weber’s and Ludwig von Mises’s social theories.
READING LIST
Conference Readings
Faoro, Raymundo. Os Donos do Poder: Formacao do patronato politico brasileiro. Sao Paulo: Editora Globo, S. A., 2001.
Mises, Ludwig von. Human Action: A Treatise on Economics. Edited by Bettina Bien Greaves. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 2007.
Mises, Ludwig von. Theory and History: An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution. Edited by Bettina Bien Greaves. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005.
Mises, Ludwig von. Bureaucracy. Edited by Bettina Bien Greaves. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 2007.
Weber, Max. Economy and Society, Volume 2. Edited by Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.
Weber, Max. Economy and Society, Volume 1. Edited by Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.