Celso Furtado - Analysis

Analysis

The Economic Growth of Brazil (original title, Formação Econômica do Brasil) is his best known book and considered by many to be a national classic. First published in 1959, it depicts Brazil's economic history and the causes of underdevelopment.

In O Mito do Desenvolvimento Econômico (The myth of economic development, in Portuguese), published in 1974, Furtado almost prophetically refers to the "spread of the world economy" ("mundialização da economia") when describing the ongoing economic process known today as globalization and raises questions about issues we are living today:

1) The myth of economic development versus the need natural resources for economic processes: it's a myth to think that economic development, and its benefits, will some day reach everyone in the world if the model of economic development does not change. For instance, there are not sufficient natural resources available for every person in the world if one considers the economic model on which economy was based in the 1970s and is also based currently, i.e. the model where consumerism and individualism are the base for corporate actions. For instance, if every person had money to buy a car, our cities would be completely frozen. The critics on the myths of economic development were based on a report for the Club of Rome, which is summarized in Abstract of The limits to Growth: a report to The Club of Rome;

2) About poverty: in countries that do not have "central" economies (countries that are not the base for giant corporations), at most 10% of population could reach the level of wealth achieved by people in the richest countries. Peripheral economies, which would not create an independent and more complete economy, would continue to be poor countries, with increasing differences between poor and rich people inside this societies;

3) About the World economic superstructure: The world superstructure of capitalist economy (mainly IMF and GATT, which originated WTO (World Trade Organization) would, on the one hand, increase control over the world economy, also increasing freedom for capital's flows and for big corporations' actions, and, on the other hand, would decrease the number of possible options available for governments, mainly for poor country's governments. This is the kind of development that has been taking place for the last 30 years.