Paulo Guedes: estudo do intelectual público

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to analyze Paulo Guedes' speeches as a columnist for the newspaper “O Globo” (2005-2016) and the magazine “Época” (2007-2011). Based on the concept of public intellectual, in a dialogue with the works of Antonio Gramsci, Pierre Bourdieu and Edward Said, Guedes is seen as an individual who has in his columns a debate about the world of ideas, whose position in relation to reality allows him to carry out an analysis of his surroundings. Given his trajectory prior to publications, highlighting his PhD at the Chicago School and acting as one of the “Chicago Boys” in Pinochet's Chile, the work chooses to analyze the speeches from the ideological aspect of neoliberalism. The research focuses on answering: how can the discursive trajectory of the public intellectual be read? What are the values and ideologies present? As a general objective, the work intends to identify, describe and correlate Paulo Guedes' speech with the neoliberal social and economic political model. Thus, a vast contemporary literature on neoliberalism is used to demonstrate the debate surrounding the concept and the variations in notions about the rationality of this ideology. In order to problematize and outline limits of the proposed theoretical framework, both Foucauldian conceptions and Marxist interpretations are brought forward. The present case study, in a qualitative approach, develops two theoretical-methodological efforts to analyze the discourse present in the cataloged columns. To understand Paulo Guedes' trajectory, positions and stances, the research, within its analytical limits, elaborates how neoliberal language is expressed in the principles through which the object of the research intends to legitimize the political construction of a new order. The research finds the relationships established between this intellectual and his audience are sought, presumably, through the configurations of his identification, the disputes held and the types of symbolic production in his texts. In this way, his observations about the international and national scenarios. Through this work, the argument is supported that the public intellectual fits into a socio-political representation that coincides with large Brazilian businesspeople oriented towards the implementation of a “radical liberalism” since the Constituent Assembly. It is noted that, in the contexts analyzed, Guedes elaborates his ideals in accordance with the construction and historical development of neoliberal political thought, especially with political and economic interests that constitute this political will to rupture the current system. Through the reiteration of market notions and financialization of all political and social aspects, it is identified that their ideas are close to moral libertarianism, which demands an ultra-minimal State, established in its basic functions and without embracing social dimensions of any kind.