Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira
Revista de Economia Política 9(3), julho-setembro 1989: 115-130. Trabalho apresentado ao simpósio "Democratizing Economics", USP e Wilson Center, São Paulo, julho 1988.
The present wave of privatization and the relative success of the neoliberal criticism against the economic role of the state are part of the cyclical character of state intervention. We are now in the downturn of the cycle. During the upturn state intervention, measured in terms of nationalizations and increase in regulation, it is initially successful, but after some time it runs in increasing distortions. The crisis and the criticism that come with the distortions lead to a reduction and particulary to a change in the pattern of state intervention. But never to a return to l'Etat gendarme dreamed by neoliberals.