The capitalist state and the management of neoliberal urban policy

Finding tracks in Marxist theory for analysis of Consortium Urban Operations

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the complex relationship between state and capital in the manufacturing of urban space in Brazil inducted by the urban development instrument of the Urban Consortium Operation (UCO). For this, the chosen path strives to move away from a simplistic can dogmatic reading overshadowed by an abstract view of a capitalist state. Concepts and interpretations of the Marxist theory are applied to allow interpretation of the concept of state, in consideration of its selective class character in the choice of policies and its variable of balance of forces. Concept such as “relative autonomy” and “entrepreneurial governance” are rescued as a way of understanding the state’s action in the midst of the need to accumulate and legitimize itself in the wake of recent forms of urban public management. Our object of study, the UCO, is challenged from its limits in becoming a redistributive instrument managed by private capital, coordinated by the state and inserted, at the same time, with in the context of progressive public policy. Finally, considerations are made about the possible influence of the various actors around this instrument and its manifestations subject to interpretation by the Marxist theory.