O debate Gudin/Simonsen paralelo ao debate do cálculo econômico socialista

This paper analyzes the historical context of the debate between Roberto Simonsen and Eugênio Gudin on the role of state planning in the post-war Brazilian economy. Both had different views on how to develop the Brazilian economy: Simonsen defended the active state intervention with the objective of closing production bottlenecks and to coordinate efforts in order to increase the productive efficiency; Gudin defended the adoption of liberalization policies and incentive to private entrepreneurship. Such positions resemble a lot the positions adopted by socialists and liberals during the socialist economic calculation debate, which occurred a decade before. Although Simonsen had been influenced by other traditions (such as the Old American Institutionalism), he defended practical applications of planning that emerged from that debate, Gudin was directly influenced by the liberal positions, citing Hayek, Mises and Robbins. In the end, I argue that the debate can open way to understand complexity questions in the economy and the relation between complexity of the productive structure and development