Systemic cycles of capitalism, state and federative dynamics: a theoretical discussion

Abstract

The article aims to present a discussion about the relationship between the systemic cycles of capitalism and the federative dynamics of peripheral states. It is assumed that federations are not forged solely by their internal institutional routes, as institutionalist theories hold, but they are influenced by the systemic cycles of capitalism. In this way, processes of state’s centralization and decentralization would respond to the cyclical capitalist movement that imposes decentralizing and liberal models alternated by models of active states and coordinators, imposing changes in the functioning of federations. In the 1980s, it was said that decentralization would mean an instrument of administrative efficiency, accountability, and democratization. Here it is argued that decentralization does not carry with it an intrinsic value and its effects depend on the State that one wants to reform and the socio-historical contexts that give them a meaning.