This article intends to carry out a theoretical and analytical reflection on the specific forms assumed by monopoly capital and bourgeois domination in contemporary capitalist societies. Our hypothesis is that given the development of corporate structures and the advance of capitalism itself, some economic groups assume such a high degree of organization that they begin to operate with characteristics similar to the private devices of hegemony in Gramscian terminology. To develop this question, in the first part of the text, we elaborated a brief theoretical reflection on contemporary capitalism and, in a second moment, we analyzed the specific case of the Odebrecht group, a conglomerate that can be appointed as representative of Brazilian monopoly capital until the operation Lava Jato and that acted in a certain way with functions similar to a private apparatus of hegemony in Brazilian society.
Keywords: Monopoly capital; Odebrecht; Economic groups; Contemporary capitalism; Private apparatus of hegemony