Authoritarian state on the periphery of capitalism: notes on police violence in times of capital crisis

Abstract

This article is an theoretical essay on the relationship between police violence and the State based on the Marxist tradition, particularly on the configuration of the State in the Brazilian dependent economy. The objective was to analyze how the current moment of capital's sociometabolism configures the police and presents limits to its transformations as a public force in the dependent State. For this, the category State was discussed, and then contributions were made to reflect on the structural crisis of capital and the authoritarian restructuring of the Brazilian State in guaranteeing the reproduction of accumulation patterns. After this discussion, contributions to the reading of the police are presented, focusing on the authoritarianism of this institution and discussing the limits of its understanding when not carried out in the economic-political sphere of the production mode based on the exploitation of labor.