Delfim Netto and the Brazilian Economic Miracle (1968-73)

• Grant number: 11/14322-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2012
• End date: February 28, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Principal Investigator: Alexandre de Freitas Barbosa
• Grantee: Felipe Marineli
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros (IEB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This paper aims to articulate the economic policy implemented during the Brazilian "economic miracle" (1968-1973) with the theoretical prop given by Antônio Delfim Netto, then Minister of Finance (1967-1974), seeking to understand the genesis and the social function of his thought. In his theoretical work, Delfim Netto points to the fundamental importance of capital accumulation in the process of economic development, theory posed in practice during the "economic miracle", which featured itself, among other things, by the increase of public funding to capital. Through documental analysis, his assertions about the development of Brazil are examined, as well as his treatment of the related problem of distribution of the production and discussions with Brazilian economists, seeking, furthermore, through journals and analysis that have turned to the examination of economic thought and the national reality, the apprehension of how the economist inserted himself in that Brazilian historical context, in order to understand the internal logic of his theoretical constructs and objectives of government economic policy that culminated in the "economic miracle", which significantly contributed to the solidification of a Brazilian`s capitalism way of being. (AU)