Dengue, Capitalism and the Environment

Dengue, Capitalism and the Environment

Nildo Viana *

In 1955 it was eliminated the last outbreak of Aedes aegypti in Brazil. In 1967, outbreaks of this gnat reappear in Pará and in 1973 is again considered eliminated. A new resurgence in Salvador (BA) in 1976 is accompanied by a continued expansion of focus from the end of the 70s and early 80s and in 1986 is discovered in Rio de Janeiro, the existence in Brazil, Aedes albopictus of which spreads across the country. Both are transmitters of dengue, which emerges forcefully across the country at the end of the 90s of the 20th century that allows the resurgence of dengue? The answer to this question brings us to the issue of the environment and quality of life in capitalist society and its transformations.

The explanation of this phenomenon calls for the elimination of simplistic analyzes, such as those who attribute the resurgence of dengue to the lack of a state policy of prevention and control. This analysis falls into two methodological errors that any researcher would fall: a) the explanation of a phenomenon by no occurrence of another phenomenon; b) the illusory isolation of the analyzed phenomenon. Just as one can not say that "a child fell from the crib because the father did not hold" because his fall was caused by his movement and his father's external action could avoid it but not provoke it, nor can say that the lack of prevention and produced the return state control dengue because it could avoid or minimize maximum but never produce this phenomenon. A phenomenon can never be explained by the non-occurrence of another, as if a phenomenon does not occur, it does not exist, and consequently can not produce anything. Moreover, this kind of explanation forgets the fundamental methodological principle which is the total, according to which one can not isolate a phenomenon leaving aside its relations with other phenomena and their multiple determinations. But in addition to methodological errors, there is another reason why the return of dengue can not be explained thanks to the lack of state policy of prevention and control as it does not also exist in previous years.

What explains this phenomenon then? Some features of dengue and mosquitoes can help answer. Dengue fever develops contemporaneously in large urban centers and in periods of greater heat and the Aedes aegypti has small "dispersal capacity", ie, travels a few meters, meaning that its passage from one country to another is accomplished via transport utensils for human beings. Some researchers emphasize the role of the "clap" of the planet as a cause of the spread of dengue. The clap of the planet, in turn, is a product of capitalist development model, based on the expanded reproduction of capital and consumerism, which generates environmental destruction on a large scale. This is reinforced by the very constitution of urban space, which is a high population density and social inequality, and the benefits of urban infrastructure (sanitation, etc.) are denied to the poorest social groups. Thus, the determination key, the most important is the capitalist development model and full-scale environmental destruction.

Adjacent to and associated with this determination we found several other contributing to the spread of dengue, including excess waste, provided by this same model development based on the production scale consumer goods increased, which generates in turn, an enlarged reproduction of waste, which benefits the said expansion. Another element is the neoliberal state policy from the 80s and 90s of the 20th century Michel Chossudovsky puts As in his book The Globalization of Poverty, "in sub-Saharan Africa several contagious diseases supposedly controlled reappeared, including cholera, Yellow fever and malaria. In Latin America the prevalence of malaria and dengue has increased dramatically since the mid-80s in terms of incidence of the parasite. The activities of prevention and control (directly submitted to a reduction in public spending imposed by the Structural Adjustment Programme) suffered appreciable restriction ".

Thus, we note the relationship between dengue, environment and capitalism. The capitalist development model deteriorates the quality of life through the process of environmental destruction and causes the clap of the planet, generating in turn, the process of re-emergence of dengue. At the same time, this same development model is an urban space founded on inequality and population concentration, creating sectors marked by poverty and misery, elements that contribute to the spread of dengue, as well as produces the expanded reproduction of consumer goods production and the consumer market, alongside the consumer culture and the increasing production of waste, another element that facilitates the expansion of dengue.

Thus, we have the capitalist development model as a producer of dengue resurgence due to environmental destruction and clap the planet derived from it, and we like the spread of dengue facilitators neoliberal state policy, the formation of an urban space based on the marginalization of of the urban population, the growth of poverty and hunger, increased production of consumer goods and all that derives from it (consumerism, high waste production, etc.).

Thus, it is necessary to rethink the development model to avoid the reappearance of contagious diseases or the appearance of new, as environmental degradation and deterioration of quality of life point to reflect on the reason for the development, because it would only have direction (rational) if facing the well-being and improving the quality of life and not for a production-dynamic that serves the interests of a minority, less affected with the current state of affairs.

New year means new life?

New year means new life?

Nildo Viana

End of year. Amid the Christmas and New Year comes the expectation of beginning and change. Fortune tellers, astrologers, among others, are consulted by the media and the public to know how will be the year that is coming. People wish happy New Year to each other. Every holiday season is marked by this expectation that the year will start will be better. But where does this expectation and these predictions? What is the real basis of this expectation? What does the passage from one year to another? Such questions are rarely placed, because people rarely question the air they breathe, and this goes for the "cultural air," that is, the world of traditions and concepts that permeate everyday life.

The expectations are the product of desire for a better life, a happier future. The origin of these expectations is of two elements: discontent and desire. Discontent with the current life (in whole or in many of its aspects, that if the modern society, refer to the professional, emotional, financial, political) brings the desire for change, the hope that better days will come, dreams They will be realized.

The discontent and the desire to create expectation and a belief in change and a pseudestesia (false sense) collective renewal. Forecasts people do not have, in most cases, a concrete base. This makes the mystical forecasts a strong attractive, because they increase the hope and belief in change.

Most perceive this process as individual: discontent, the object of desire, expectation, belief in changes to the individual. Although there may be individual changes, they are limited if none of social change. Hence the eternal dissatisfaction and desire for change, because even those who climb a step in upward mobility, enrich and realize desires that, deep down, do not mean personal fulfillment, since they remain trapped in a commercial, bureaucratic and competitive society continue feeling discontent and the need for further change. The change in the collective sense was more common in "primitive" societies, not marked by individualism and competition, although it was not abolished, but only marginalized in modern society.

However, the move to the New Year does not mean any change in them. The year is a period of time built through a classification process, using as criteria the time the Earth takes to get around around the sun. In the contemporary world, is what is called "solar year", whose origin It is Egyptian. What occurs is a physical motion of a planet around a star, marking certain period of time. This time period also expressed biological changes in living beings, among others, but presenting no jump or radical change.

The expectation of change that occurs this time of year is directed to the sphere of social relations, which suffer no great influenceThis physical movement that serves as a qualifying criterion for the length of the year. In addition, the demarcation of when is the end of the year and beginning of the next is arbitrary, a social product. Could it be, instead of January 1, in August, since the calendar had been produced in another form, with another marking of dates. And it was so, for example, in ancient Egypt, where the year began on July 19. In other cases, the beginning of the year occurs on other dates as March, September, December. Not to mention the calendars in which the year has more than 12 months.

Some superficial changes reinforce this collective pseudestesia renewal. How various social relationships are organized from the temporal demarcation of the annual calendar, this reinforces the perception of a change. The school calendar, for example, is mainly organized on a yearly basis, which means that the individual looks forward to meeting new people, experience new relationships. Even as a six-month schedule, the sense of renewal is reinforced by the general climate announced by New Year and rather amplified by the media, by mysticism and by religions. New Year is also the Football League resumption and other sports competitions, the promises of new programs on TV and a few changes that, at bottom, nothing changes or change superficially, or localizadamente, reaching only some individuals or social groups, which is little more than individual change alluded to above. Because there is no change in the totality of social relations. In some individual cases, the changes are a little deeper as to who passed the entrance exam or hit a new labor contract.

With regard to social relations, the changes do not fall from heaven, nor is any magical event on January 1 that causes any change other than a continuity process with respect to (s) year (s) above (s). The Second World War broke out in 1939, was not born this year because it was the product of a long historical process which led to its reason for being and existence. So if someone wants new events the following year, have to realize that there is a process that brings a set of trends and the sheer will, faith or mysticism can do nothing in this direction, as are the previous actions that will promote possible changes. Although the will and faith are elements that can influence events, the preparation and the present action are more important to change the future. This has nothing to do with the move to the New Year. A magical day when things change without any action in this direction is impossible. The break between the present and the future does not occur, because the future is built today - carrying the influences of the past - including the break. Nothing will happen next year that is not already prepared, or in embryonic form this year and in previous years. Therefore wish happy New Year is something empty if we have not done anything for the future to be better. The best way to wish a happy New Year is to do something in this for this to happen in the future.

The Integral Accumulation and Violence in Schools

The new capitalist accumulation regime and violence in schools

Nildo Viana

Neoliberalism avoids spending on social policies, contributes to the transformation in the production and international exploration process and performs a privatization policy for the benefit of capital. Its maximum is minimal and strong state, ie a state that intervenes minimally and maximally suppress.

Contemporary capitalism has been the scene of a set of transformations that have direct relation to the increase in violence in schools. This set of transformations has its source in the social struggles and capital offensive to increase exploration, since the 60s the average profit rate has been falling. The student revolt of May 68, along with other protesters movements of the time, represented the first symptom of the new period of social struggle and transition to a new regime of accumulation, marked by an offensive in order to resume the pattern of capitalist accumulation.

The new regime of accumulation will sketching and from the 1980s - with the rise and gradual generalization of neoliberalism, the so-called productive restructuring and new international relations constitutive of a neo-imperialism - we have to materialize. These three elements characterize the entire regime of accumulation, called by some "flexible", and cause several changes in civil society, the world of culture and ideology. Neoliberalism avoids spending on social policies, contributes to the transformation in the sphere of production and international exploration and performs a privatization policy for the benefit of capital. Its maximum is minimal and strong state, ie a state that intervenes minimally and maximally suppress. The repressive policy is in the countries of subordinate capitalism, accompanied by remedial policies (quotas, inclusive education system, specific programs for welfare character) that reveal nothing more than a way to try to prevent total delegitimization of the neoliberal state without leaving their logic, that is, without increasing public spending, throwing the responsibility for civil society or benefiting some at the expense of others, such as the quota policy.

The worldwide increase in the prison population is just an expression of the repressive face of neoliberalism, reaching every country in the world (for example, increased 240% in the Netherlands and 140% in Portugal). Needless to mention the situation of the poorest countries and the high rates of hunger, poverty, among others, to see the new context of contemporary global capitalism. The so-called "productive restructuring", expressed in Toyotism and similar models, points to an increase in the surplus value extraction, both absolute and relative, and the hyper-imperialism points to intensified international exploration.

A situation marked by increased exploitation, misery, conflict, deterioration of family relationships and mental health of people, are fundamental to understand the increasing violence at school. Palliative policies or "compensatory" end is conducting a makeup reproduction of unfavorable living conditions of the population instead of proposing real solutions. The increase in violence and its growing presence in schools is a consequence of this state of affairs. The conservative discourse comes to preach the school moralizing and to appeal to individual responsibility and unlink social relations and poverty of violence, playing the American ideologies and enhancing playback of all this deplorable situation and therefore violence in schools.

Article originally published in: A Página da Educação, Portugal, No. 140, Year 13, December 2004.

http://www.apagina.pt/?aba=7&cat=140&doc=10502&mid=2

Transformations in contemporaneous capitalism and its impact on state policies: the SUS in debate

Saúde e Sociedade

versão On-line ISSN 1984-0470

Saude soc. vol.24  supl.1 São Paulo abr./jun. 2015 Epub Abr-2015

http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0104-12902015S01007 

ARTICLES

Transformations in contemporaneous capitalism and its impact on state policies: the SUS in debate

Celia Maria Sivalli Campos ¹ , Nildo Viana ² , Cassia Baldini Soares ³

¹Universidade de São Paulo. Escola de Enfermagem. Departamento de Enfermagem em Saúde Coletiva. E-mail:celiasiv@usp.br

²Universidade Federal de Goiás. Faculdade de Ciências Sociais. Email:nildoviana@ufg.br

³Universidade de São Paulo. Escola de Enfermagem. Departamento de Enfermagem em Saúde Coletiva. E-mail: cassiaso@usp.br

ABSTRACT

The object/subject matter of this article is the Brazilian National Health System (UHS), understood as a state health policy crossed right at birth by strong neoliberal attack. The text is divided into two parts: the first part presents discussion on the concepts of crisis, regime of accumulation and analysis of the current situation of this regime. It also summarizes the main features of the latest changes, showing the increasing difficulties in the accumulation of capital and the attempted solution in the context of neoliberal policies and the resonance of this process in Brazil. In the second part, starting from the assumption that state health policies are formulated to support and enable the health production process, we present the concept of state policy. Next, the discussion focuses on the impacts of the crisis on health policies. It is noted that the fundamentals principles of the Brazilian SUS - universality and equality - were the most affected by neoliberal policies. Finally, the paper discusses some implications for primary health care. It also calls attention to the fact that government institutions are engendering moral non-essential actions, which act as masking mechanisms of health privatization. It also outlines some of the challenges for those who oppose resistance to the Brazilian SUS's dismantling.

Key words: Neoliberalism; Public health policies; SUS; Regime of accumulation; Capitalism; Brazil

INTRODUCTION

The Brazilian health reform peaked with the approval of the Brazilian National Health System (SUS), by the Constitution of 1988. SUS was taken by storm, especially in its fundamental principles of equality and universality, by neoliberal policies which accompanied the full accumulation regime assumed by the Brazilian state.Since then, and after 24 years of approval of federal laws 8080/90 and 8142/90, several analyzes have been conducted, with some of the main collective health journals devoting special issues or areas of debate to these SUS assessments, which has enriched the debate in such area. There are important criticisms, supporting discussion of the blows into the system, considered in their birthplaces as a Brazilian progress in civilizational terms. Thus, this paper presents in the first part a discussion on the concepts of crisis, of accumulation regime and an analysis of the current situation about the accumulation regime. It also summarizes the main features of the latest changes, showing the increasing difficulties in capital accumulation, attempts to respond to them in the context of neoliberal policies and the resonance of this process in Brazil. In the second part of this paper, the text outlines the state policies concept and presents a discussion of the impacts on health policies crisis.

The purpose of this article is to contribute to discussions on the subject and on the challenges posed to those who dedicate themselves to resist against the SUS' dismantling and the social rights privatization processes.

Changes in contemporary capitalism

Modern society, unlike the preceding, is marked by constant change after a crisis. Much has been written about the crisis in capitalism as well as about crisis of capitalism. The crisis can be understood in different ways. In Gramsci's conception, it means that the old can no longer reproduce itself and the new can not emerge (^{Gramsci, 1988}). According to Habermas "[...] crises arise when the structure of a social system allows fewer possibilities to solve the problem that is necessary for the system's continued existence" (¹⁹⁸⁰, p. 13). Another conception of crisis is that one of (^{Chauí 2007}, p. 44):

So the crisis appoints the conflicts within society and politics to better hide them. Indeed, conflict, division and even contradiction can become appointed by the discourse of crisis, but are at a very precise name: in the crisis, the contradiction is called danger. It is no accident that the notion of crisis is favored by authoritarian, reactionaries, counterrevolutionaries discourses, for in them the notion works in two different records, but complementary. On the one hand, the notion of crisis serve as an explanation, that is, as knowledge to theoretically justify the emergence of an irrational alleged in the heart of rationality: the "crisis" serves to hide the real crisis. Furthermore, this notion has a practical effectiveness as it is able to mobilize the social agents, waving them at the risk of loss of collective identity, fostering in them the fear of social breakdown and, for both, the fear of revolution, offering them an opportunity to restore the order with no crisis, thanks to the action of some rescuers. The crisis theme thus serves to strengthen submission to a miraculous power that is embodied in saviors' people and for this incarnation, what seemed lost returns: the society identity itself. The crisis is therefore used to make appears on the social and political agents the feeling of a danger that also threatens all, which give them the feeling of a community of interests and destination, leaving them to accept the banner of salvation of a society supposedly homogeneous, rational, scientifically transparent.

However, we think that the crisis' concept should be rethought because all these definitions end up showing certain limits. The Gramscian concept works much more with the idea of decadence, towards something get in the decomposition process, but that does not live with an alternative. Similarly, the Habermas's concept points to fewer possibilities that the structure can solve the problem which threatens the system's playing. In addition to the functionalist language, this crisis conception is reduced to the question of a form of crisis, a society, or, in terms of systemic functionalism, "social system". And in this case, it does not cover reality. In capitalism, its structure (capitalist mode of production) always finds difficulty in performing its reproduction, that is, then, based on the Habermasian concept of crisis, it would be something permanent in capitalism and therefore would not make sense, after all a society always in crisis is the same as never having crisis. The Marilena Chauí's discussion, in turn, ends up taking the term "crisis" as an ideological construction and so abandons it and not even defines it (despite speaking in "real crisis"). No doubt, we can think about an ideological use of the term crisis, but by no means it loses its theoretical and explanatory potential. In fact, the ideological use of crisis construction, according to the author, is to delete the "true" crisis and refusing the use of such a word fulfills the same role. Therefore, it is a noticeable gap in Chauí's approach on this term.

This text has taken as crisis a situation in which a being (individual, institution, society, etc.) lives a time when there is a radical difficulty for reproducing or existing (^{Viana, 2014}).

Thus, it can be said that a crisis in the context of a society means that it has a moment when faces a radical difficulty reproducing itself. This is not about any difficulty or problem facing by it; it has a radical character, reaches its essence in an exact time.

The capitalist society lives in constant transformation and difficulty of reproduction, but its essence remains the same. Sometimes it has entered into crisis - for example, between the 1910's to mid-1920's (World War I and attempts to proletarian revolutions in Russia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and radicalized social struggles in other countries).

The essence of capitalist society is in its mode of production, in its relations of production. These may find increasing reproductive difficulties, but while they are not questioned, which presupposes the existence of alternative and real agents who place such a possibility, it is not a crisis of capitalism. A capitalist crisis occurs at a time when a radical difficulty emerges for its reproduction, which means that the capitalist mode of production is really arguable by the proletariat and the allied classes. This concept is quite distinct from those of Gramsci, Habermas and Chauí.

In contemporary times, capitalism finds problems to reproduce, but it is not a crisis, although probably the situation walks towards this direction. These difficulties to reproduce live with the lack of an alternative that expresses a real force, although there is a trend in this direction, but still too weak. To understand this process, it is necessary to understand the evolution of capitalism. This changes accordingly to the succession of accumulation regimes, which are the expression of a specific configuration of such a society at any given historical moment. Such an accumulation regime expresses a certain way for hegemonic organization of work (such as Taylorism, Fordism, Toyotism), a certain state form (such as liberal, liberal-democratic, Keynesian and neoliberal) and a particular form of international relations (colonialism, neo-colonialism etc.)⁴. The history of capitalism has been marked by a succession of different accumulation regimes (extensive, intensive, combined, in full) in its historical development (^{Viana, 2009; 2003}) and currently, after the end of the 1960s crisis which lasted until mid- 1970's, it lives under the full accumulation regime.

The full accumulation regime emerged in the 1980s in Europe and the United States (^{Viana, 2009}; ^{Braga, 2013}), later spreading throughout the world, known as "productive restructuring", which is the change in the organization of hegemonic form of work, and neoliberalism, the form taken by the capitalist state which, along with the neoimperialism - that develops a little later, being called "globalization" - materializing it⁵.

This new system of full accumulation, to overcome the crisis of a prior accumulation regime, seeks to increase the previously existing exploitation rate. In terms of work organization, means the search for increased productivity, the use of secondary forms of exploitation and the corrosion of labor rights.

This process was supported by the neoliberal state, which created the political, legal and ideological conditions for this understanding, and the imperialist countries were also architects of such increased international operation.

However, not only capitalism is historical and undergoes changes, but also the accumulation schemes. There is the time of formation, development and dissolution process (which is complicated, and there may be partial reconfigurations which delay their overrun by another accumulation regime or a social revolution which means the overcoming of capitalism).

The full accumulation regime cycle in the imperialist bloc was marked by periods of formation and expansion (1980), consolidation (1990) and initial dissolution period (destabilization and weakening, which begins in the early years of the 21st century, increasing with the passage of time). However, these periods do not occur at the same time inside the countries' bloc, as the development of each one of them is asynchronous. This obviously also affects the bloc of subordinate capitalist countries, although it tends to occur later after. Neoliberalism, for example, emerged in 1979 in England and in 1980 in the United States, while in countries under subordinate capitalism, it developed from the end of the 1980s. In Brazil, it began in the Fernando Collor de Mello government elected in 1989 (^{Viana, 2009}; ^{Braga, 2012}).It is this time of full accumulation regime that has a greater impact on state health policies. The social processes which occur from 1999, as the emergence of anti-globalization movement (with its heterogeneity and ambiguity), the crisis in Mexico and Argentina, the emergence of a new antiestablishment culture (also with ambiguities and widening), the problems and events which are taking place in France and other countries to reach the financial crisis in 2008. This latest crisis has as derived elements new difficulties of reproducing the full accumulation regime, and seeks to resolve them through its reconfiguration in the form of expansion (austerity policies, especially in countries with most important difficulties, such as Greece, Portugal and Spain). Therefore, the full accumulation regime faces a declining period and tries to overcome its difficulties by expanding the exploitation process within its logic.

This undoubtedly promotes a deterioration process of such a situation and also a process of expanding the conflict in general. These processes show up more strongly in some countries, while in others it is in an engendering process and many others are still unaware of the more extensive changes. However, there is a tendency for these processes to generalize, because the rate of profit tends to fall again, the capitalist development (or "economic" development, according to the language of economists and the press, as well) slows and tends to aggravate the situation.

In this sense, the neoliberal state, which is to be minimal (in the intervention - in the production with state-owned enterprises and the market - and in state policies for social assistance) and strong (repressive), tends to increase its economy with social spending (political austerity) and its repressive character, i.e. further enhancing its characteristics.

In Brazil, the full accumulation regime happens in a specific manner. The main specificity is that the country makes up the bloc of the subordinated capitalism (once called "Third World", "developing or "developing" countries, "dependent capitalism" etc.). The Brazilian subordinate capitalism is part of the new accumulation regime in a particular form. The capital accumulation in Brazil is subject to and part of it is transferred to the imperialist bloc. In addition, the Brazilian situation was much worse than that of the central capitalist bloc countries, so the impact of subordinate neoliberalism was higher.

The successive neoliberal governments in Brazil broadened the basis of this new-such a configuration. In addition to supporting the changes needed for the called "productive restructuring", with corrosion of labor rights and other actions (including the creation of "temporary contracts", the time increase for retirement etc.), cutting state spending, privatization, public-private subject (both priority level of state action as proposed in "partnership", which point out for increased privatization and commercialization of state), financial setting policy, palliative welfare policies replacing structural policies etc..

The financial stabilization policies have produced the effect of containing the inflationary expansion and the policies of "economic growth", due to a given international and national context, managed to have relative success. No doubt, the exploitation increased and with it, the social problems, which caused dissatisfaction in sectors of the Brazilian society which advanced in a small part in questioning and mobilization, but still incipient and unable to unite all those dissatisfied. The exploited classes had their movement contained, not only by financial stabilization and capital development (the "economic growth"), but also by strong bourgeois hegemony in civil society, which was facilitated by the rise of the Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores) to the government and its strong influence in certain sectors and social movements, among others, and the palliative and cooptation policies of these segments. The opposition was reduced: to those more radical sectors, to a portion of the youth and some other segments, losing much of its strength and pressure capability.

This framework interfered in the set of state actions, with the gradual reduction of state intervention and the implementation of structural social assistance policies, called "universal".

The decrease of the capital development in recent years, especially from 2013, promoted a yet greater difficult situation as that growing number of strikes and manifestations, among other forms of opposition and resistance, has hampered the solution that the capital always present for such moments: increased rate of exploitation.

Thus, it can be said that since 1990 the neoliberal policies promoted lower state intervention, along with precarious processes in sectors such as education and health, among others. This process occurred in different forms, depending on changes of government, the environment and the country's situation, taking into consideration the previous times.

Alongside the changes in the Brazilian subordinate capitalism, neoliberal policies mark a situation of deterioration of state policies. This is even more serious when one can see the priorities and actions of past governments, overlooking the exploited classes and their demand and favor that so-ideologically called "new middle class", an illusory construction, which means that some sectors had some growth in their income.

The state policies, aimed to meet the demands of these segments - layers of best proletarian income and of those middle-income in the intelligentsia, bureaucracy etc., show a priority which is not the whole of that exploited classes, and let alone those who ever meet in more precarious situation yet.

Although the 2008 crisis has not seriously affected the Brazilian capitalism in the following years, along with the very exhaustion of the last government economic growth policies (2010-2013), its effects were felt. The gradual increase of the resistance was seen, with the 2012 mark as the year with the highest number of strikes since 1997, and 2013 as the great popular demonstrations.

In this context one can foresee the possibility of a neoliberal adjustment to further increase the repression and precarious conditions. In a even worse scenario, one can also foresee the implementation of "austerity policies". The other possibility, optimistic, is that social pressures can, at least in the short term, promote a retreat from the neoliberal offensive. Other possibilities exist, but those presented herein are the most likely in a shorter period of time.

Undoubtedly, it is the correlation of forces between social classes and sectors of society that will determine which possibility will turn into reality as well as the future developments.

Crisis impacts on health policies: the SUS in debate

This is on the assumption that the state health policies are formulated to support and facilitate the production process in health.

In the public service sector, such as health, the state policies guidelines are materialized in working processes, both in the assistance and in the management. Therefore, in the context of contemporary capitalism the SUS is organized and operated by the forms of work organization engendered by the full accumulation regime, even if only considered the public part of the system.

State policies are state devices governed by the same logic of the overall production process of such social formation. That is, they are internally made in the set of social relations and proposed by the state "[...] within its internal contradictions and external pressures" (^{Viana 2009}, p. 94). Therefore basically determined in favor of the general capital interests and the needs of capitalist accumulation, but also as responses to conflicting classes, interest groups and parties "[...] which dominate the capitalist state [...] "and pressure by means of popular pressure, of lobbying, among others, in order to damp social conflicts which can generate governability crisis or social change (^{Viana, 2006}, p. 94).

The SUS, a state health policy instrument, was the result of such a pressure, led by the Sanitary Reform Movement. However, according to Sérgio Arouca, "improving health conditions was not just the reason to create the SUS, [...] it was necessary to discuss the health not as the Ministry of Health policy, but as a permanent state of function."⁶. The ideas of SUS was aligned to the social democratic conception of universal law. However, the implementation process was undermined by neoliberalism (^{Calipo; Soares, 2013}), which responded to the objectives of the full accumulation regime (Viana, 2009).

In that case different conceptions and SUS projects were in dispute, as described by (^{Paim 2006}, p. 36):

The formal SUS, established by the Constitution, the Organic Health Law and ordinances; the democratic SUS, a member of a totality of changes designed by RSB; the real SUS, with the right to play on the name of the coin symbolizing the monetarist economic policies and macro structural adjustment, hostage of that so-called economic area of governments and of the clientelism and patronage featuring the Brazilian state; and the SUS to those underprivileged as part of targeted policies advocated by international organizations.

The project that has performed the guidelines of the current accumulation regime attacked the SUS essential principle, universality (^{Calipo; Soares, 2013}), mainly because, according with (^{Mészáros 2003}, p. 17),

[...] it is impossible the existence of a universality in the social world without substantive equality. Clearly, therefore, the capital system, in all its conceivable or historically known forms is incompatible with its own projections - albeit distorted and crippled - of universality (...). The capital potential universalizing tendency, in turn, becomes the reality of a dehumanizing alienation and reification.

With decentralization, the only SUS organizational guideline which has not collided with the neoliberal ideology, became effective (^{Levcovitz; Lima; Machado, 2001}). It was a fund-transfer mechanism while allowing greater independence of management of municipalities also enabled the federal level increasing control (^{Paim et al., 2011}), governed by financial logic. Through the allocation of financial resources, it acquired inducing capacity of health policies (^{Heimann et al., 1992}).

The Ministry of Health led the accession of municipalities to the primary care organizational model (AB) by the Family Health Program (PSF), later named the Family Health Strategy (ESF), with the transfer of variable resources.

The guidelines set by the ESF advocate programmatic logic practices, oriented to reduce risk factors of subjects belonging to priority groups in the Ministry of Health guidelines (^{Elias et al., 2006}; ^{Facchini et al., 2006}; ^{Giovanella; Escorel; Mendonça, 2009}; ^{Szwarcwald; Mendonça; Andrade, 2006}), which groups were defined by NOB 96, mainly composed of subjects who exclusively use SUS to health care, called among health managers ,"depending on SUS".

The ESF is the main health sector organization strategy. Therefore it can be considered as being a part of the project adopted by the federal government for social security. According to Paim (2013), the essence of the social security state policy is the welfare, developed by focused actions for poverty reduction, following the World Bank neoliberal prescriptions.

Another pillar sustaining such neoliberalism is anchored in the public-private relationship, which is expressed by the under-funding public sector and the mechanisms of subsidy and support to private capital, in addition to the public management privatization. The federal government funding for public health is 46%, but was already 75% in 1980. The transfer of values for AB and the SAMU fell by 30% to 50% between 1998 and 2010. Moreover, there was an increase of mean and high complexity care; in 1995 the ministry spent 5.4 times more than with the AB and in 2012 this difference increased to 7.7 times. The secondary and tertiary care had their per capitas increase by 43% between 1995 and 2012, while for primary care, the increase was only 1.1% (^{Santos, 2013}).

The medical and hospital services now incorporate high-density capital equipment, showing how the health care sector has become a consumption pole of industrialized goods (^{Paim, 2006}).

Grant mechanisms are implemented through tax relief, or exemptions and deductions of taxes for companies, the pharmaceutical industry; public private health plans co-financing to federal employees: "It's what one might call out the SUS privatization, that is, the external private system to SUS, which earns fees on consumer and public grants, and falsely proclaims that relieves SUS "(^{Santos, 2013}, p. 276).

Another element of this public-private relationship is granting the management of public health establishments to private groups under the "[...] false thesis that the public sector is incompetent by definition in public service management to social needs, and that the private sector is naturally competent "(^{Santos, 2013}, p. 276).

To carry out the society accession process to the direction given by neoliberalism towards the public-private relationship, such convincing mechanisms are ideological. So what justifies the exchange of the universality by the focalization and the equality by the equity is the idea that public resources are scarce and therefore should be allocated to meet those "socially excluded".

However, the inclusion of those "socially excluded" mainly occurred in the AB, intentionally organized to meet this population. This inclusion, however, does not apply to supply and system utilization to a greater technological complexity levels (^{Dias-da-Costa et al., 2007}).

The public-private relationship introduces the public space outsourcing services, undermines any employment arrangements (^{Paim, 2013}), the reorganization of health work processes by Toyotist model, which directly impacts the worker, both within the individual prejudice as the possibilities to recruit collective resources of strengthening - the reflection on the job and labor rights, among other topics (^{Souza, 2015}; ^{Santos; Soares; Campos, 2007}).

The SUS' project advocating health as a universal right has extensive ideological support in the society, by expressing itself in the government programs on health policy which only outlines the essence of the matter, without actually acting on it. (^{Paim 2013}) calls attention to the fact that the important government posts are held by managers who concretely engender policies favoring the interests of capital, but which are politically supported by moral and cultural prestige.

In this process, the mechanisms which mask the health privatization processes are engendered as care guidelines for humanization. How to humanize health care relying on precarious funding? How to humanize health care in the face of poor working and life conditions, which are at the root of health problems? How to humanize health care before the class exploitation and daily exhausting work?

In practice, the attempts to give concreteness to the public and universal SUS project occur in localized experiences, from effort of workers, a "[...] true network resistance to the dismantling (...) of the SUS" (^{Santos, 2013}, p. 277).

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

The paths for operationalization of the universal and equal SUS create challenges; and, because they express contradictions, they invariably come into conflict with the established order and with the single speech, ideologically established, which disqualifies the questions and the political discussions.

Such resistance paths and struggles are being taken: in the daily lives of working processes by workers who recognize the contradictions and correlate prejudice with the Toyotist work organization; in social movements, where the mobilized population is denouncing health system's flaws, the loss of social rights and social inequalities. Both health workers and mobilized groups build emancipatory practices, which instrumentalize the subjects of social groups to access rights and fight for them, encouraging the solidarity values, rescue the human condition of sociability (^{Campos, 2013; Campos et al., 2014}).

The emancipatory practices development demand from public social institutions to take on the responsibility of educate workers to be able to recognize the alienation mechanisms at work, criticize focused health policies, simplified and aiming to soothe social tensions, denounce the health privatization and the ideological character of governing positions which bring nothing concrete to stop the privatization and instead, favor capital.

The social movement engenders the pressing force, denunciation, and expresses the correlation of forces. In this process there is political learning and the political struggle becomes more and more frequent and strong.

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Received: January 21, 2015; Accepted: March 17, 2015

Celia Maria Sivalli Campos Av. Dr Enéas de Carvalho Aguiar, 419. Cerqueira Cesar. São Paulo, SP, Brasil. CEP 05403-000.

Celia Maria Sivalli Campos Av. Dr Enéas de Carvalho Aguiar, 419. Cerqueira Cesar. São Paulo, SP, Brasil. CEP 05403-000.

Os autores trabalharam juntos em todas as etapas de produção do manuscrito.

The authors worked together in all the manuscript production steps.

Financial crisis, state and legal regularization

FINANCIAL CRISIS, STATE AND LEGAL RECULARIZATION

Revista Direito GV

Print version ISSN 1808-2432

Rev. direito GV vol.5 no.2 São Paulo July/Dec. 2009

http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1808-24322009000200006 

LAW AFTER FINACIAL CRISIS

Financial crisis, state and legal regularization

Nildo Viana

Professor at Universidade Federal de Goiás PHD in Sociology, UNB/Universidade de Brasília

Correspondence to

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ABSTRACT

The present discusses the subject of the financial crisis and your effects in the state and juridical sphere, starting from josé eduardo faria article (2009). para this author, the financial crisis places subjects they be discussed her that possess resonance in the state and juridical sphere and this produces a situation of "few certainties and a lot of doubts", and five pointed possibilities would exist for some analysts. the analysis exposed part of another interpretation of the financial crisis and, consequently, of your social consequences, as well as it presents other tendencies and effects of these on the right, presenting an alternative conception to the that this author presents.

Keywords: Integral accumulation; capitalism; financial crisis; right; juridical sphere

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This paper discusses the issue of financial crisis and its effects in the state and legal areas, based on José Eduardo Faria's article (2009).For this author, the financial crisis raises issues for discussion that have resonance in state and legal areas, which produces a situation of "few certainties and many doubts", and there are five possibilities pointed out by some analysts. Based on these thoughts, we will conceptualize this relationship as a starting point for the discussion introduced by Faria (2009).

Faria's statements would be part of the discussion between two positions: Keynesian, favorable to state intervention; and Schumpeterian, supporting a self-regulating market. According to Faria, the analyses inspired by these viewpoints are often given a more "ideological" than "analytical" character. The reductionism of this approach lays a shadow on the complexity of the issue based on the financial crisis. The starting point is the financial crisis started in 2008, but we start from another analysis of the financial crisis and, after briefly explaining our perspective, we will return to Faria's text and discuss the effects of the crisis in state and legal areas.

The explanations for the financial crisis are varied. For some, the increase in interest rates to fight inflation would have started the process that triggered the crisis. Others say it was the State was absent or that the State's presence was excessive. For others, this would be a crisis of over-accumulation, or another stage within capitalism cycles. However, we believe these analyses are rather challenging, since some of them are only circumstantial while others are based solely on structural elements. However, structural and circumstantial aspects are actually not separate and for that reason, we are conducting another analysis of the process that triggered the financial crisis of 2008. Capitalism is characterized by the production of surplus value, i.e., a specific form of commodity production that is sustained by exploiting workers that produce new goods and add value to them, besides passing on the value contained in the means of production, including the cost of their own workforce. This new value added to goods makes exploitation possible, since the capitalist has taken possession of the value, accumulating capital: this is the process of reproducing capital, which leads to concentration and centralization. In this context, there is a trend of decline of the average profit rate, due to fact that there is more and more technology available and fewer jobs, and this is what adds value to the goods. Hence, workers' struggles are another problem in the capitalism reproduction process, because it is difficult to deepen exploitation, and these two common aspects are tackled through joint actions of large capitalist corporations and the State. In summary, the average rate of profit tends to fall and get lower and lower with the historical development of capitalism. On the other hand, capitalism creates countertendencies to slow down this process (VIANA, 2003; VIANA, 2009).

Government intervention, the constant pursuit of increase in productivity, the attempt to increase international exploitation and the process of expanding the mass of profit are the main strategies to tackle the deepening and acceleration of the crisis. The resistance and struggles of worker and other sectors nationwide are the main obstacles to implementing these counter-tendencies. The history of capitalism is marked by a succession of regimes of accumulation, which crystallizes a particular kind of State, international relations and organization of the work process, which characterizes and shows how to fight the decline in average profit rates (VIANA, 2009).

The current regime of accumulation - total capital accumulation - which some call "post-Fordism" or "flexible accumulation" - is based on neo-liberalism, neo-imperialism and toyotism. It appeared in the 1980s to halt the process of decline in the profit rate that began in the late 1960s (Harvey, 1992). However, this regime of accumulation was taking shape, becoming generalized and being consolidated from the 1980s and peaked in the 1990s, and started to decline in the 1999, when again that process (of accumulation) could not be halted; that happened in the 1980s and especially in the 1990s, its period of peak. Now, there are indications that the total accumulation regime begins to decline. The increase in the average profit rate in the 1990s has been replaced by its decline after 2000.

This decline in the real average profit rate, in turn, produces increasing inflationary effects. This also ends up having effect on the consumer market, making it difficult to implement the opposite trend, i.e., increase profit, which means to steadily expand the production of consumer goods. The expanded reproduction of consumer markets in the current phase of capitalism is marked by a decreased consumption by the poorest strata of the population, but with high increase of individual consumption, leading to a hyper-mercantilism (mercantilism of social relations has been a feature of capitalism since its emergence, albeit increasingly broader and deeper) and a growth in consumerism, including compulsory consumption (the purchase of goods that will necessarily cause the need for other goods). The absence of the poorest strata of the population is balanced with the recovery of part of the credit system, although it reaches the other sectors of society. The credit system has been expanded since the end ofWorldWar II and was an important element for the expanded reproduction of the consumer market, which was intensified under the new regime of accumulation, allowing consumption by a portion of the population that does not have immediate financial resources.

It is in this context that the U.S. financial crisis occurs. The huge accumulation of capital resulted in an increase of financial and parasitic capital, a volatile capital, i.e., volatile and dissolvable.. This ends up promoting capital investment in the sectors of higher profitability. In the late 1990s, there was a shift in investments and rapid growth, focused on the emerging dotcom companies, such as Amazon. An important institution in this context is the Federal Reserve (FED), the U.S. Central Bank, and its Chairman Alan Greenspan. The expectation of high profitability did not come true:

The bubble had clearly become a lot more fragile than Greenspan had realized, and consequently more dependent on their sponsorship and support. At the end 1998, and again at the end of 1999, the FED loosened the credit offer significantly to reverse major declines in the securities market and keep stock prices on the rise.

When, instead, Greenspan continued to insist throughout the first half of 2000 that the FED would no longer inflate the bubble, stock prices began to fall, even though the real short-term interest rate had hardly changed. E-businesses experienced a slump in bond prices in the second quarter of 2000. From the end of the mid-year onwards, larger markets started to fall alarmingly. At the end of 2001, the NASDAQ Index dominated by technology and Internet companies - one the headquarters of skyrocketing stocks - had fallen by 60% from its peak in early 2000. S&P 500 was the territory of speculation, falling by more than 20% from its high. Five trillion in assets vanished like smoke (BRENNER, 2003, p. 314-315).

The virtual economy bubble burst. However, the event was followed by a sharp fall in average profit rates and incidental events such as September 11 bombings, which provoked the reaction of the Federal Reserve to reduce interest rates in order to boost the market and resume growth. The FED held other actions, such as fueling the credit system and reducing interest rates, which caused an upturn in real estate prices.The result was an expansion of the real estate industry. That was when the "tracked securities" and the subprime market niche were created. This fact generated the bubble in the real estate market. The capital then moved to this sector looking for greater profitability. Borrowers had to refinance their mortgages, and began to receive extra money from banks. Banks created mortgage-backed securities that were sold in the market for investors who also resold them, what caused the increase in demand for new mortgages since they had become the source of money, and thesubprime became a new market niche targeted at low-income people. It should be noted that the fall in profits from the 2000s and its inflationary pressure was combined with an expanding market niche with a larger degree of default risk. The problem of the consumer market was largely resolved with this process; however, the problem of the falling profit rates and inflation was not; instead it was worsening and, as there was no solution for this case, the inflationary pressure continued to intensify, so the FED raised the interest rates to restrain it. Consequently, there was a downturn in real estate prices.The result was the increase in defaults, mortgage losses, etc. This started a snowball, reaching bank capital and dragging banks into the crisis. This was the origin of the financial crisis, its expansion and consequences, bankruptcy and U.S. government bailout to banks.

This had global repercussions, with more or less intensity; its effects have not yet ceased and its proportions are not yet clear. Several social consequences, such as increased unemployment, shortcomings, anti-immigration policies, consumption decline, conflicts, demonstrations, etc. In this context, the financial crisis crossed the boundaries of the financial world and entered other sectors of society.

This is the scenario for the debate between Keynesianism and Neo-Liberalism; the former advocates a stronger state regulation; the latter supports the idea of a "minimal state". This is a very complex process. From these positions, we can also infer the role of Law. According to Faria (2009), in the contemporary world submitted to this context (although his approach and our perception of it are different), there are some problems and scenarios to be considered by the Law.We can summarize the four issues listed by Faria (2009) as follows: (a) Trend towards homogenization and unification of financial legislation and regulation on real estate values on a global scale; (b) Exhaustion of the operational capacity and lack of effectiveness of conventional legal mechanisms of national States, especially with regard to economic and financial control; (c) Contradiction between political power (state regulation) and financial capital (economic self-regulation) And (d) Global interconnection with predominance of financial capital, with a process of unification of financial and banking laws experiencing State increasing difficulties in solving the problems faced, due to lack of resources.

However, these problems can be set aside and others can be listed, or even their explanation and tendencies should be discussed in depth.Actually, the trend for homogenization is only a possibility for tackling many difficulties, and there are no real agents to carry out the task. The problems appear to be subject to the globalization ideology, criticized for its metaphysical-abstract character (VIANA, 2009), which presents reality in a fatalistic, inexorable manner, which is not actually true, with some phenomenal elements being strengthened and others not. Indeed, the financial crisis brings problems to the reproduction of the total accumulation regime, but the solution is not yet clear and first we generally implement small changes to resolve international relations and the process of appreciation without altering the present State formation, i.e. the regime of accumulation. The tendencies that we deem most likely in the short term do not represent a strengthening of the so-called "globalization" reaching areas such as Law, but a strengthening of national States, which start to feel the need for further intervention both with respect to the financial sector and in relation to the political process, with the State becoming more interventionist and more authoritarian. Government bailout to U.S. banks, which happened later in Europe, was only the start of a new state interventionism in the market, trying to avoid bankruptcy and the expansion of the crisis which could mean the end of the total accumulation regime. The anti-immigration policies and repression to political movements are other faces of State actions. Nevertheless, we must not lose sight that this financial crisis does not occur in a void, but in a context of declining average profit rate and a trend of exhaustion of a regime of total accumulation. The effects on Law and the scenario ahead end up being different from those envisaged by Faria (2009).

Instead of five scenarios, we think that we could think of historical possibilities and consequences for Law starting from each of them. Obviously, this is only a preview of tendencies resulting from complex relationships; therefore, this outline is imperfect and may have left aside other possibilities that can be hardly perceived for now and may become clear in the future.

The first tendency is that the financial crisis will eventually be controlled without major repercussions. Despite being controlled, there will be some effects; but in this case, they would not be as severe as to lead to major changes. This would depend on several factors, from government policies (the U.S. and other countries), actions of the big capital, social and labor movements, financial institutions, national conjuncture, domestic solution of problems and conflicts, etc. If it is favorable as a whole and the popular reaction is mild, then it would be possible to maintain at least in the short term, the current situation and in the medium and long term, try to keep the situation under control, despite its fragility. In this case, from a legal perspective, there would not be major changes, except for a little more regulation in some developed countries; globally, this role would be undertaken by organizations controlled by imperialist countries.

The second tendency would be the unrest caused by the financial crisis along with increasing difficulties for the continued accumulation of capital, which would have social consequences, among them increasing poverty and unemployment, and a worsening of social conflicts. In this case, we could think of an immediate attempt to solve the crisis within the regime of total accumulation, intensifying its repressive character and promoting a stronger state, not only in the financial area, but in others, which could be complemented by its reproduction worldwide, i.e., by deepening international exploitation that would generate claims for stronger control, strengthening conflicts in subordinate capitalist countries to seek relief in imperialist countries. This could be done given the US hegemony and new armed interventions, reheating the U.S. economy through the arms industry. This process would generate greater state interventionism and in the process, stronger legal regulation, both nationally and globally. New issues and problems would arise such as the conflict between resolutions of international organizations and policies of national States.

The third tendency is marked by deeper financial crisis generating a broader crisis, affecting the core of the regime of accumulation. Such crisis would immediately spark increasing social conflicts and, in the short run, there would be an attempt to return to the previous scenario, but in the medium run, there would be a collapse of the regime of total accumulation. From this tendency, several other possibilities may emerge. The first would be the shift to fascist and dictatorial regimes, marked by the possibility of a "war capitalism", with massive destruction of productive forces and dictatorial conflict-settling; fighting workers' organizations and social struggles to increase profit rates and create imaginary enemies (VIANA, 2007) to ensure stability in the national State and turning the focus on the conflict towards a war waged on a suspected foreign enemy. According to this possibility, the Law would be undermined at its foundations, because of a constraint on the judiciary, legislative and executive powers. In this case, there would be a crisis in Law, which would be subject to the dictatorial regime at national and international levels, since international conflicts would suspend rulemaking processes in many cases.

Another possibility would be a process of conflicts and crises that would end in a new regime of accumulation, which is difficult to predict, since it would have to be more aggressive and repressive than today, in addition to deepen even more national and international exploitation. In this case, State capitalism, as developed in the Soviet Union as of the Bolshevik revolution would be a more likely scenario. An almost complete nationalization of private property, particularly with a general process of bureaucratization of society and broad repressive State control, giving grounds for even fiercer exploitation. However, the accumulation process would be slowed down due to the fragile competition among corporate oligopolies, which would be nationalized. A permanent and generalized dictatorial regime that would control the downward trend in profit rates, because the reproduction of capital would be slowed down, and in face of a internationalization of this regime, the production of surplus-value would be replaced by another form of exploitation, and capitalism would turn into a bureaucratic mode of production, with social characteristics and processes that cannot be predicted in detail. In the first phase of this process, the Law would be an important element, though subordinate, in the process of building legitimacy for the new form of capitalism.The Law under this regime would be identical to the "Soviet law."With the internationalization process of this regime, a unified Law would probably be established worldwide. The transition to a bureaucratic mode of production would make Law stronger and more active in everyday life; perhaps the most legitimate social relation, more powerful and internationalized.

Another possibility is the sparking of social revolutions and the establishment of societies based on social ownership or, in other words, communism, as proposed by Marx (1986), Rosa Luxemburg (1991), Anton Pannekoek (1978), Otto Rühle (1975) and many other thinkers, dissenters of the tendency called Marxism-Leninism or Bolshevism. In this case, the proletariat and its allies would carry out a process of abolishing the State and the private property, creating bodies of social ownership, such as councils and communes, which would implement the "self-government of producers" (Marx, 1986). The councils of producers and regional communities would be forms of self-organization in the sphere of production and reproduction of material goods; they would be generalized to accommodate to the array of social relations. In this context, the legal institution and its related specialist bodies would be abolished and replaced by a number of resolutions made by the people; that would suffice for social reproduction in general.

Accordingly, it appears that the future of Law is intrinsically linked with the unfolding of the evolution of capitalism. For each historical possibility, the Law is called to perform for a specific role, whether strengthened, weakened or abolished. Hence, it is important to understand the role of Law in modern society. Law is socially constituted. It also creates new social relations (VIANA, 2006). Nevertheless, this process of creation occurs only if pushed by prior and superior social forces. As already observed by Erlich (Lopes, 1988), the Law is always delayed in relation to social change. There is no doubt about this assertion, but there are exceptions and the Law itself can cause social change within limits and originating from forces prior to and superior to it.

In summary, the current situation is marked by the unfolding of the financial crisis, which can take several directions, including the opposite. This process will also have consequences in the legal sphere. It is not possible to tell the future of capitalism today, because further information and research would be needed to outline a broader and more realistic framework. Social struggles and tendencies are various and it is not possible to predict the unfolding of the process, because the future is not decided and the people are entitled to decide based on their own point of view and conflicts.

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Manuscript approved on September 28, 2009
received on June 15, 2009