Eugênio Gudin: The Controversies of Caboclo Neoliberalism

This article examines Eugênio Gudin’s theorical production that express his newliberal posture, which highlights his opposition to Roberto Simonsen, Cepal’s economic developmenttheory, Marx and followers. Gudin recognized Karl Marx as the biggest enemyof capitalism. He attributed to the thinker the creation of the concept of capitalism withhistorical connotations. Radically denying this content and balancing the conception of thenatural and eternal character of this system, he focused on capitalism as a production systemwhich connects itself harmonically with democracy. He worked with the pair of concepts:economy market and democracy as an antithesis of planning and totalitarism, structuringthe discourse that stress the abstract general plan, disregarding a concrete-historical analysisfor each specific case. Consequently, every aspect that does not fit that pair is considered undemocraticand interventionist, as an equivalent denial of the human ideal, sometimes thatshould be avoided, or even destroyed. JEL Classification: B31.