The Political Economy of José Osvaldo De Meira Penna

The purpose of this article is to investigate the intellectual influences on Meira Penna’s arguments on the origins of the Brazilian paternalistic state. As a classical liberal, Meira Penna’s political economy could easily be connected to different schools of thought such as the Chicago, Virginia, and Austrian schools. In his book O Dinossauro, Meira Penna argues that Brazil’s paternalism stems from past constructivists ideas that were imported into the country. Though influenced by different schools of thought, most of Meira Penna’s arguments have a clear influence of the Austrian school tradition. Meira Penna’s critique of constructivism and call for the formation of a spontaneous order led to the conclusion that Hayek was the thinker that had the greatest influence on Meira Penna’s political economy. In the history of ideas, Meira Penna’s O Dinossauro should be understood as an early and robust case of theoretical and applied Austrian economics in Brazil.