NOVOS RUMOS PARA O SETOR ELÉTRICO NO BRASIL

Abstract

The fact that the electricity sector in Brazil is now facing serious economic and finantial constraints, which in fact jeopardise its prospective expansion, is a consensus. This, alongside with the sharp downfall in revenues that the "Social Welfare State" is undergoing has clearly favoured the position of those who are for the privatisation of the whole state-owned productive sector, including the companies of the electricity area. In particular, the idea that the present crisis is due to the failure of the state as entrepreneur has gainel significant grounds. In view of this reality, the chief goal of the present piece of academic work is to ascertain the factors that, over the years, have contributed to the absolute rule of the government-owned enterprises over the entire electricity sector, in Brazil. An inevitable by-product of such approach is what we intended to be a thorough research into the causes of the utter depletion of the finantial capacity of this sector, notably in the late seventies, and the feasibility of the privatisation of the electricity sector.