Between State and market: the political-economic elite of Brazil’s Central Bank

Abstract

The review of Os mandarins da economia: presidentes e diretores do Banco Central do Brasil, edited by Adriano Codato and Mateus de Albuquerque, discusses the results of a collective investigation into the composition of an elite segment located within the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB). This elite is characterized by its control of significant political resources and its capacity to determine key variables of economic policy. Highlighting the research’s rigor and methodological innovation, the review explicitly elucidates the transitional condition of this elite, simultaneously political and economic, and its pivotal position in the process of (re)shaping the boundaries between the State and the market in the country.

Keywords:
political-economic elite; State; market; Central Bank of Brazil (BCB)