Keywords
dependency
sovereign debt
Argentina
Brazil
How to Cite
Abstract
This article contributes to the literature on dependency theory and subordinate financialisation in peripheral economies by examining the cases of Argentina and Brazil. Building upon the subordinate financialisation framework (Kaltenbrunner, Alami) and dependency theory (Marini), we analyse these nations' distinct experiences of international subordinate financialisation. Drawing on original evidence from constructed datasets of national and international accounts, we demonstrate that Brazil exhibits conventional drivers of subordinate financialisation—including household indebtedness, financialisation of non-financial corporations, and a developed banking system reliant on high interest rates to attract foreign capital. Conversely, Argentina manifests financial subordination through structural foreign currency illiquidity (at both national and international levels), dollarisation of savings, cyclical external indebtedness shaping real business cycles, and persistent capital flight.
References
Alami, I., Alves, C., Bonizzi, B., Kaltenbrunner, A., Koddenbrock, K., Kvangraven, I., and Powell, J. (2021). International Financial Subordination: A Critical Research Agenda. Greenwich Papers in Political Economy (GPERC85).
Alami, I. (2021). Money Power and Financial Capital in Emerging Markets. Facing the Liquidity Tsunami. Routledge.
Alves, C., Bonizzi, B., Kaltenbrunner, A. and Palma, J. (2022). Conceptualizing financialisation in developing and emerging economies: systemic and global perspectives. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 46(4), 1-10.
Aglietta, M., and Rebérioux, A. (2004). Dérives du capitalisme financier. Albin Michel.
Althouse, J., and Svartzman, R. (2022). Bringing subordinated financialisation down to earth: the political ecology of finance-dominated capitalism [State capitalism and the new global D/development regime]. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 46(4), 679–702. https://doi.org/DOI: ,
Amin, S. (1974). Accumulation on a World Scale: A Critique of the Theory of Underdevelopment. Montlhy Review Press.
Arantes, F. and Lopreato, F. (2017). O novo consenso em macroeconomia no Brasil: a politica fiscal do plano real ao segundo governo Lula. Revista de Economia Contemporânea, 21(3), 1-34
Arrighi, G. (2015). El largo siglo XX. Akal.
Barrera Insua, F., and Pérez, P. (2019). “Como comer y descomer”: flexibilización laboral y baja salarial durante el gobierno de Cambiemos. In P. Belloni and F. J. Cantamutto (Eds.), La economía política de Cambiemos. Ensayos obre un nuevo ciclo neoliberal en Argentina (pp. 187–212). Batalla de Ideas.
Bértola, L., and Ocampo, J. (2012). The Economic Development of Latin America since Independence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bona, L. M., and Páez, S. M. (2020). Fases, similitudes y diferencias entre los casos de las dictaduras y economía política en Argentina, 1966-1973 y 1976-1983, y Brasil, 1964-1985. América Latina en la historia económica, 27(2).
Bona, L. (2024). Subordinación financiarizada. Sus características en Argentina. Cuadernos de Economía Crítica, 10 (20), 17-41.
Bona, L. and Wainer, A. (2018). Las experiencias neodesarrollistas a la luz de las teorías latinoamericanas del subdesarrollo y la dependencia. Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales; Estado y Políticas Públicas; 9 (17); 157-181
Bonizzi, B. (2013). Financialisation in Developing and Emerging Countries. International Journal of Political Economy, 42(4), 83–107. https://doi.org/10.2753/IJP0891-1916420405
Bonizzi, B. and Karwowski, E. (2023). Commonality without Convergence: An Analytical Framework Accounting for Variegated Financialisation in Emerging Economies. Available at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/commonality-without-convergence-an-analytical-framework-accountin
Bonizzi, B., Kaltenbrunner, A., and Powell, J. (2020). Subordinate Financialisation in Emerging Capitalist Economies. In P. Mader, D. Mertens, and N. van der Zwan (Eds.), The Routledge International Handbook of Financialisation (pp. 177–187). Routledge.
Bonizzi, B., Kaltenbrunner, A., and Powell, J. (2022). Financialised capitalism and the subordination of emerging capitalist economies. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 46(4), 651–678. https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/beac023
Bonizzi, B., Kaltenbrunner, A., and Powell, J. (2023). Financialisation and the Challenges of Sustainable Structural Transformation. Background paper for the UN Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2023. Available at https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/2299/27777/F_and_SST_FfD_2023.pdf?sequence=1
Bonizzi, B. and Guevara, D. (2019). Private pension funds in emerging economies: from broken promises to financialisation. In Philippe Rochon, L. and Monvoisin, V. (ed.), Finance, Growth and Inequality. London: Elgar, 58-71.
Boyer, R. (2000). Is a Finance-Led Growth Regime a Viable Alternative to Fordism? A Preliminary Analysis. Economy and Society, 29(1), 111–145.
Braun, O., and Joy, L. (1981). Un modelo de estancamiento económico – un estudio de caso sobre la economía argentina. Desarrollo Económico, 20(80), 585–604.
Brenner, R. (2006). The Economics of Global Turbulence. Verso.
Canitrot, A. (1980). La disciplina como objetivo de la política económica. Un ensayo sobre el programa económico del Gobierno argentino desde 1976. Desarrollo Económico, 19(76), 453–475.
Cantamutto, F. J., and Wainer, A. (2013). Economía política de la convertibilidad. Disputa de intereses y cambio de régimen. Capital Intelectual.
Cavalcante, S. (2020). Classe média e ameaça neofascista no Brasil de Bolsonaro. Crítica Marxista, 130, 121-130..
Chesnais, F. (2009). La preeminencia de las finanzas en el seno del ‘capital en general’, el capital ficticio y el movimiento contemporáneo de mundialización del capital. In AAVV (Ed.), Las finanzas capitalistas, (pp. 79–150). Ediciones Herramienta.
de Paula, L. Fritz, B. and Prates, D. (2020). Varieties of Developmentalism: A Critical Assessment of the PT Governments. Latin American Perspectives, 47 (1) 45-64.
de Paula, L. F., Fritz, B., and Prates, D. (2024a). The metamorphosis of external vulnerability from ‘original sin’ to ‘original sin redux’: currency hierarchy and financial globalization in emerging economies. Review of International Political Economy, 1–28.
de Paula, L. F., Leal, J., and Ferreira, M. (2024b). Financial subordination of peripheral emerging economies: a Keynesian–Structuralist approach. Review of Keynesian Economics, 12(1), 94–117.
Durand, C. (2021). Téchnoféudalisme. Critique de l'économie numérique. Paris: La Découverte.
Eichengreen, B., & Hausmann, R. (1999). Exchange rates and financial fragility. New Challenges for Monetary Policy, Proceedings of the Economic Policy Symposium Sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in Jackson Hole (319–367).
Epstein, G. (2005). Financialisation and the world economy. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Eradze, I. (2022). Financialisation of monetary policy in a dollarised economy: the case of Georgia. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 46(5), 1073–1086. https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/beac019
Fastenrath, F., Schwan, M. and Trampush, C. (2017). Where states and markets meet: the financialisation of sovereign debt management. New Political Economy, 22 (3), 273-293.
Filgueiras et Al (2010). Modelo liberal-periférico e bloco de poder: política e dinâmica macroeconômica nos governos Lula. Os anos Lula: contribuições para um balanço crítico: 35-69.
Gaggero, A., Schorr, M., and Wainer, A. (2014). Restricción eterna: el poder económico durante el kirchnerismo. Futuro Anterior.
Guzmán, M. (2020). An Analysis of Argentina’s 2001 Default Resolution. Comparative Economic Studies, 62(4): 701–738.
Hilferding, R. (1981). Finance Capital (T. Bottomor (ed.)). Routledge and Kegan Paul. https://www.marxists.org/archive/hilferding/1910/finkap/index.htm
Kaltenbrunner, A. and Panceira, J. (2017). Subordinated Financial Integration and Financialisation in Emerging Capitalist Economies: The Brazilian Experience. New Political Economy, 23 (3), 290-313.
Kan, J. (2009). Vuelta previa al 2001. La devaluación del real de 1999 y algunas implicancias en la burguesía argentina. In A. Bonnet and A. Piva (Eds.), Argentina en Pedazos. Luchas sociales y conflictos interburgueses en la crisis de la convertibilidad (Primera ed, pp. 223–251). Ediciones Continente.
Karwowski, E. and Stockhammer, E. (2017). Financialisation in emerging economies: a systematic overview and comparison with Anglo-Saxon economies. Economic and Political Studies, 2017, 5 (1), 60-86.
Krippner, G. (2005). The Financialisation of the American Economy. Socio-Economic Review, 3(2), 173–208. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/SER/mwi008
Krippner, G. (2012). Capitalizing on Crisis. The Political Origins of the Rise of Finance. Harvard University Press.
Lampa, R., Tavasci, D., and Ventimiglia, L. (2022). External finance, subordinated financialisation: a reflection on Argentina’s currency flights in the last three decades. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 46(5), 977–1003. https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/beac020
Lane and Milesi Ferreti (2024). Database available at brookings.edu/articles/the-external-wealth-of-nations-database/
Lapavitsas, C. (2016). Beneficios sin producción. Cómo nos explotan las finanzas. Traficantes de sueños.
Lazonick, W., and O’Sullivan, M. (2000). Maximizing Shareholder Value: A New Ideology for Corporate Governance. Economy and Society, 29, 13–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/030851400360541
London, F. (2000). Fonds de pension, piège à cons? Mirage de la démocratie actionariale. Raisons d’Agir.
López, E. and Noguera, D. (2023). Growth regimes in central and peripheral countries:
an econometric analysis, 1980-2018. Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, 43 (3), 723-746.
Mader, P., Mertens, D., and van der Zwan, N. (2020). The Routledge International Handbook of Financialisation (P. Mader, D. Mertens, and N. van der Zwan (eds.)). Routledge.
Marini, R. M. (2007). América Latina, dependecia y globalización. Prometeo.
Martinez, M. and Borsari, P. (2022).The Impacts of Subordinated Financialisation on Workers in Peripheral Countries: an Analytical Framework and the cases of Brazil and Colombia. New Political Economy, 27(3), 136-384.
Marx, K. (1992). El Capital. Tomo III (Décima edi). Siglo XXI editores.
Monteiro, L. and Feijó, C. (2023) External Balance and Financialisation: An nterpretation of the Evolution of the Brazilian Economy Since 2000. International Journal of Political Economy, 52(2), 181-196.
Morin, F. (2000). A transformation in the French Model of Shareholding and Management. Economy and Society, 29(1), 36–53.
Musthaq, F. (2021). Dependency in a financialised global economy. Review of African Political Economy, 48(167), 15–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2020.1857234
Orléan, A. (1999). Le puvoir de la finance. Odile Jacob.
Philon, D. (2009). Le nouveau capitalisme. La Découverte.
Pinto, E. C., Pinto, J. P. G., Saludjian, A., Nogueira, I., Balanco, P., Schonerwald, C., and Baruco, G. (2019). A guerra de todos contra todos e a Lava Jato. Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Economia Política.
Powell, J. (2013). Subordinate financialisation: a study of Mexico and its nonfinancial corporations [University of London]. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/19090664.pdf
Ross, J. (2019). Why not Default? The Political Economy of Sovereign Debt. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Saad-Filho, A. (2019). Varieties of Neoliberalism in Brazil (2003–2019). Latin American Perspectives, 0094582X1988196. doi:10.1177/0094582x19881968
Sader, E. (ed.) (2013). 10 anos de governos pós-neoliberais no Brasil. Río de Janeiro: FLACSO - Boitempo.
Serrano and Summa (2015). Aggregate demand and the slowdown of Brazilian economic growth in 2011-2014. Nova Economia, 25(SPE), 803-833.
Salama, P. (2018). Prefacio. In La financiarización del capital: estrategias de acumulación de las grandes empresas en Argentina, Brasil, Francia y Estados Unidos (Primera, pp. 13–26). Futuro Anterior.
Schorr, M. and Wainer, A. (2024). Los efectos de la financiarización subordinada sobre las cuentas externas en la Argentina. Cuadernos de Economía Crítica, 10 (20).
Schvarzer, J. (1986). La política económica de Martínez de Hoz. Hyspamérica.
Serfati, C. (2011). Transnational corporations as financial groups. Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation, 5(1), 39–70.
Singer, A. (2015). Cutucando oncas com varas curtas: o ensaio desenvolvimentista no primeiro mandato de Dilma Rousseff (2011-2014). Novos Estudos CEBRAP, 102 (34), 43-71.
Sotelo Valencia, A. (2021). Subimperialismo y dependencia en América Latina.
El pensamiento de Ruy Mauro Marini. Mexico: CLACSO.
Srnicek, N. (2019). Platform Capitalism. London: John Wiley and Sons.
van der Zwan, N. (2014). Making sense of financialisation. Socio-Economic Review, 12(1), 99–129. https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwt020
Villareal, J. (1985). Los hilos sociales del poder. In AAVV (Ed.), Crisis de la dictadura argentina (pp. 221–226). Siglo XXI.
Wainer, A. (2021). ¿Por qué siempre faltan dólares? Las causas estructurales de la restricción externa en la economía argentina del siglo XXI (A. Wainer (ed.)). Siglo XXI editores.
Wainer, A., and Belloni, P. (2018). ¿Lo que el viento se llevó? La restricción externa en el kirchnerismo. In M. Schorr (Ed.), Entre la década ganada y la década pérdida. La Argentina kirchnerista. Ensayos de economía política (Primera ed, pp. 51–81). Batalla de Ideas.
Wang, Y. (2015). The rise of the ‘shareholding state’: financialisation of economic management in China. Socio-Economic Review, 13 (3), 603–625.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2025 Leandro Bona, Andrés Wainer