Connections Between Thorstein Veblen’s Institutionalism and Celso Furtado’s Mature Writings

Abstract

This study associates Original Institutional Economics and four books by Celso Furtado from the 1990s and early 2000s, as he discusses the cultural dimensions of underdevelopment in those writings. We rely on the association of issues from Thorstein Veblen’s institutionalism with the cultural aspects of Furtado’s investigation. The Veblenian concepts of pecuniary emulation and conspicuous consumption support the understanding of the habits of the Brazilian elite as addressed by Furtado. Hence, this study examines an unexplored connection between institutionalism and structuralism as such associations usually rely on the ceremonial-instrumental dichotomy. We introduce a reading of the current Brazilian society to illustrate our argument. Such reading relies on changes promoted in higher education and the lower classes’ purchasing power.