A “lei de ferro” da hierarquia capitalista: a organização imperialista do sistema mundial ao longo dos ciclos de acumulação e o contraexemplo chinês

Abstract

This is theoretical research that, founded on historical materialism, aims to present the mechanisms of the "iron law of capitalist hierarchy" in a long-term perspective to, then, locate the limits of the development of peripheral countries. Starting from Marx's theory of value, intends to evidence that the world capitalist system is organized by the great imperialist powers to ensure the capture of value generated in the peripheral countries throughout the cycles of accumulation. The result of this is that peripheral countries do not find the means to overcome underdevelopment. In other words, the rigidity of the systemic hierarchy is proof of the imperialist capacity to organize the generation-appropriation vector of global value. In this sense, the Chinese rise appears as a "historical laboratory" that, by difference, illuminates the fundamental mechanism of the reproduction of backwardness and dependence: the structural sub-sovereignty of the peripheral countries. To achieve its main objective, the work is set by two great objectives that are articulated sequentially: first, the dialectic of accumulation is presented as a movement that imposes itself on the imperialist organization and, in the sequence, It presents the reaction of the great powers to the concrete conditions of this movement, that is, imperialism is discussed as the conduction-organization of the world system by the great powers in response to the materiality of the contradictory processualism of accumulation presented initially. To follow the theoretical-methodological path, the following specific objectives were established: to highlight the territorialized character of value generation and the geographical flexibility of appropriation; to show that States act to make adjustments necessary to overcome the crises of overaccumulation in accordance with their positions in the global processes of accumulation; to demonstrate that the restriction on the ability of backward countries to exercise their sovereignty is a "natural" consequence of the movement of capital and a fundamental foundation of imperialist organization; to present imperialism as "conduct in response": conducting-organizing the world system in response to the concreteness of the contradictory dynamics of accumulation; presenting dependence as the materialization of imperialist organization; demonstrating that Chinese reforms are initiated at a convenient time for capital (crisis of overaccumulation) and that the country avoids the installation of some variant of dependent capitalism because it maintains in its social formation an element foreign to the reproductive metabolism of world capitalism, namely: ample capacity of exercising sovereignty by a country with relatively backward productive forces. Starting from the Chinese counterexample, the search confirms that the peripheral countries, structurally marked by the "natural" combination of backwardness and sub-sovereignty, do not find possibilities for development within the limits of the reproductive structure of world capitalism.