The Marxist Theory of Dependency (MTD), with the aim of understanding the ways in which capital is reproduced in different economic and social formations in different historical periods of capitalist development, constructed the concept of Capital Reproduction Pattern (CRP), supported in the known general form of the cycle of industrial capital, which is also the form of the money-capital cycle - as formulated by Marx. This text discusses the scope and limit of this concept for the understanding of contemporary Brazilian socio-economic formation. It is pointed out that, although it contributes to the understanding of concrete socio-economic formations, its level of abstraction does not allow to perceive important differences existing between them - especially the Latin American ones. As a consequence, it is proposed, in a complementary way and in a lower level of abstraction, the concept of a Capitalist Development Pattern (CDP), duly redefined, and which refers only to a unique socio-economic formation (unique in its history).
Marxist Theory of Dependence; Dependent Capitalism; Capital Reproduction Pattern; Capitalist Development Pattern; Brazilian Economy