Reinventing the Bourgeoisie: State Entrepreneurship and Class Formation in Dependent Capitalist Development

This study examines the attempts of the Brazilian state to promote the expansion of the role of local capital in the capital goods and petrochemical industries during the period 1974-79. In the capital goods industry the attempt was unsuccessful and generated serious political opposition to the regime among local entrepreneurs, thus illustrating the extent to which processes of class formation lie outside the control of even a relatively powerful state apparatus. In the petrochemical industry the existence of a powerful state enterprise within the sector was critical to the state's ability to restructure the industry. What resulted was neither a "reinvention of the bourgeoisie" nor the creation of a "state capitalist" sector but, rather, an interesting oligopolistic community in which state and private local capital are thoroughly integrated and similarly organized. It is suggested that focusing on the concrete forms of such oligopolistic communities represents the most promising strategy for understanding the local side of dependent capitalist development.