The limits of the “peddler State” intervention in the economic order: the privatization of “Empresas Incorporadas ao Patrimônio Nacional - EIPN"
Nationalization; privatization; economic order; “Empresas Incorporadas ao Patrimônio Nacional – EIPN”
From 1940 onwards, the Brazilian federal government nationalized private companies, normally due to their debts with the State. These companies operated in different economic sectors and, thus, railways, radio and television stations, slaughterhouses, hotels and construction companies, among others, constituted the group known as “Empresas Incorporadas ao Patrimônio Nacional” (EIPN). In the following decades, the State incorporated new companies, but also sold their assets and privatized them. The group would not survive until the enactment of the Federal Constitution of 1988, victimized, in the period immediately preceding it, by transformations in the model of state intervention in the economic order. The general objective of this research is to analyze the privatization policy in Brazil, focusing on the EIPN. For this, this thesis discusses the constitution of the group; the bases of the new privatization policy; the actions taken in relation to these companies; and the legal nature of these entities, a crucial issue to seal their fate.