NOTAS DE ECONOMIA POLÍTICA: IMPERIALISMO E DEPENDÊNCIA ECONÔMICA NO SÉCULO XX

Abstract

This article proposes a discussion on the dynamics of imperialist relations throughout the 20th century, understanding that the transformations that occurred within the capitalist mode of production made the existence of a new imperialism possible. Furthermore, this study seeks to relate the imperialist policy of the United States to the economic dependence of countries with peripheral economies. Based on a review of the literature and grounded in the historical-dialectical materialist perspective, this study applies Gramscian concepts of State and Hegemony to analyze the foreign policy of the United States, especially after the Second World War. In this way, the concept of new imperialism, as expressed by the British geographer David Harvey, complements and reinforces the thesis that American global power was structured not only through coercion, but especially through intellectual and moral leadership, that is, through cultural and ideological influence. Finally, the argument emphasizes that the consolidation of this hegemonic power is closely linked to the process of increasing economic dependence of the so-called peripheral economies.