Economic thought in the doctrine of political action of the Brazilian armed forces

Abstract

This article aims to analyze changes and continuities in the post-1988 Brazilian military economic thinking, especially regarding key issues for politics, such as the role of the State, the market and society in national economic activities. For this, a longitudinal analysis of the "Basic Manual" of the Escola Superior de Guerra (ESG) was carried out, according to editions published in the Geisel (1975), Figueiredo (1983), Sarney (1988), FHC (1996, 2002), Lula ( 2006, 2009) and Dilma (2014). Adopting the model of structuring the belief system of political elites, categories were created according to the ontological, political and instrumental nuclei. In the results, it can be affirmed that the economic thinking of the ESG doctrine maintained adherence to neoliberalism, with regulatory interference of the State in the economy with the functions of regulation and administration. The market and the private company continue to be the main centers of production, circulation and distribution of the economic system. As significant changes, it was possible to observe the suppression of hypotheses of State intervention in production, admitted only for reasons of security or private lack of interest in strategic areas. Likewise, the promotion of social justice and the elimination of social and regional inequalities disappear as functions of the economic expression of national power.