The Academic Career and Contributions of Theotônio Dos Santos1

Abstract

Abstract: The article examines the classic book of Theotonio dos Santos, Imperialism and Dependency, published in Mexico and Japan (1978), in China (1992) and by Ayacucho Library in Venezuela (2011), putting it in the context of the overall work of the author. In the first part I present an overview of the author's work, in the second I examine the main thesis of Imperialism and Dependency, and in the third part I present an overview of this work, highlighting its theoretical and methodological substance.Key words: dependency theory; Theotonio dos Santos; Latin-American development; Latin-American MarxismAn Overview of His WorkImperialismo e Dependencia (Imperialism and Dependency), published initially in 1978 in Mexico by publisher Era, is one of the classic books of Latin American social sciences and expresses its international projection. In it, Theotonio dos Santos gathers and reviews his previous works: La crisis norteamericana y America Latina (1972), Dependencia y cambio social (1972) and Imperialismo e corporacoes multinacionais (1973). The book was also published in Japan in 1978, in China in 1992, expanding the reach of these three works through editions in Argentina, Spain, Portugal, Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico.To understand the importance of Imperialismo e Dependencia and analyze its substance, we must first situate its place in the overall work of Theotonio dos Santos. We can divide it into three major steps: The first, which is constituted between the end of the 1950s and the 1964 military coup with his clandestine activities in Brazil; the second, which is configured by his Chilean and Mexican exiles; and the third that begins when he comes back to Brazil. This division, however, is coupled with the wide continuity of the structure that the author develops by building and launching new themes. He becomes the exponent and founder of a school of thought of huge international impact: the dependency theory and its reorientation in the contemporary world.In the first stage of his intellectual activity, Theotonio dos Santos graduated in sociology, politics and public administration from FACE (Faculty of Economics, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte) achieving afterwards a Master's degree and becoming a professor in Political Science at the University of Brasilia (UNB). Between 1960 and 1964 he systematically studied Marxism through seminar readings of Capital together with Ruy Mauro Marini, Luiz Fernando Victor, Vânia Bambirra, among others. He starts POLOP (Organizacao Revolucionaria Marxista/Politica Operaria-Marxist Revolutionary Organization/Worker's Politics) and assumed its national leadership in 1964. He spoke on behalf of the movements of students, of slums dwellers and of peasants. He dedicated himself to the analysis of the Brazilian social formation and broke with methodological nationalism (which assumes an analytical approach focussed on nation states and their relations with one another, disregarding their roles as part of the whole) that guided the interpretations of Brazil. By doing that, he outlined the elements for a theory of dependency. It will be developed subsequently by his understanding of Brazil and its role in the world economy.His studies emphasized the central role of foreign capital in the genesis of the class structure of Brazilian society and the process of capital accumulation growing in it. He also called attention to the limitation of the hegemony of the Brazilian industrial bourgeoisie that did not break with the technological dependence and compromises of agro-export landowners (the source of foreign exchange for industrialization through import substitution) that resulted in the Brazilian capitalists abandoning their weak democratic-national flags to the wide incursion of foreign capital in the industrial sector after the War and the crisis of populism and the coup of 1964 due to the class characteristics and fascist tendencies of the bourgeoisie. …