Dependency 4.0: Theoretical Considerations and the Brazilian Case

• Author: Leda Maria Paulani
• Date: 01 March 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X211060844
• Published date: 01 March 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X211060844

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 243, Vol. 49 No. 2, March 2022, 24–38

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X211060844

© 2021 Latin American Perspectives

24

Dependency 4.0

Theoretical Considerations and the Brazilian Case

by

Leda Maria Paulani

Translated by

Heather Hayes

The liberalization of markets for goods and assets that took place beginning in the

1980s, alongside a strengthening of the resulting transnationalization of capital, did

not alter the basic hierarchical organization of the global capitalist system. This new

dependency, here called “dependency 4.0,” is based on the rent seeking that marks the

contemporary wealth accumulation process and ongoing technological progress.

Brazil’s incorporation into the international division of labor is emblematic of this type

of subordination.

A liberalização dos mercados de bens e ativos que teve lugar a partir dos anos 1980 e o

fortalecimento da transnacionalização do capital que resultou daí não alteraram o pressu-

posto fundamental da prevalência de uma organização hierárquica no sistema capitalista

mundial. Um novo tipo de dependência a relacionar países centrais e periféricos, dependên-

cia 4.0, estaria assentada no rentismo que marca hoje o processo de acumulação e na

natureza do progresso tecnológico em curso. O caso do Brasil—a história de sua inserção

na divisão internacional do trabalho—é emblemática desse novo tipo de subordinação.

Keywords: Dependency theory, Capital accumulation, Rentierism, Knowledge com-

modities, Brazilian economy

Dependency theory emerged in Latin America in the 1960s. There is no con-

sensus about its necessarily being a theory,1 since it involves writers not only

with different backgrounds and positions on many topics but also with differ-

ent theoretical orientations, although with a clear predominance of Marxism.2

According to Fiori (1995: 215), all versions of the dependency school “refer, in

one way or another, to the confluence of the Marxist theory of imperialism, in

particular its post-Leninist version, with the Economic Commission for Latin

America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) critique of the neoclassical theory of

international trade.”

Leda Maria Paulani is a senior professor in the Department of Economics at the Universidade de

São Paulo and in the postgraduate program in economics of the university’s Instituto da Pesquisas

Econômicas. This article is part of a research project supported by a research productivity grant

from Brazil’s Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (National Council

for Scientific and Technological Development). The author thanks Dario Rodrigues da Silva for

his help with preparing the data and the figure. Heather Hayes is a translator in Quito, Ecuador.

1060844LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X211060844Latin American PerspectivesPaulani / DEPENDENCY 4.0 IN BRAZIL

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