As Crises Capitalistas: uma aproximação ao pensamento de Marx

Abstract

The present dissertation proposes an analysis of Karl Marx's mature work, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, covering all three volumes with the objective of extracting theoretical determinations and systematizing them around the theme of capitalist crisis. Marx’s critique allows for the examination of underlying contradictions in this mode of production, characterized by a reified, impersonal, and abstract form of wealth that permeates the entire social fabric. Marx's labor theory of value emerges as a fundamental analytical tool for understanding these social relations, marked by their commodity form and the growing productive forces of social labor dedicated to the production of commodities. Throughout the exposition, Marx's analysis enriches the categories examined and reveals a law of capital's movement centered on the valorization of value, encapsulated in the "general law of capitalist accumulation," which stands in contrast to the satisfaction of human needs. This approach enables the identification of elements leading to cyclical breakdowns in capital’s movement, marking its crises in historical progression. Building on these findings, we proceed to a second phase that demonstrates how these laws identified by Marx provide a theoretical explanation of causal elements behind crises that characterize subsequent phases of capitalist development in modern times, such as those represented by the crises of 1929, 1970, and 2008.