Métricas sobre o Estado : por uma sociologia da classificação do risco de crédito soberano brasileiro
Abstract
This thesis deals with a set of questions and an analytical perspective that are relatively recent in the
frameworks of contemporary international economic and financial sociologies and is
underrepresented, at least at a first glance, in the national institutional picture. The research
addresses the profound transformations that financial metrics and classifications have produced, at
different rates, in the contemporary Sovereign States. The enunciation of classifications, metrics and
statistics as a reference for the construction and justification of realities in different scenarios in the
contemporary social life, reverberates even more when it comes to the economic and financial
dimensions of Sovereign States. Thus, the proposition of these devices in this specific space is based
on the justification of two orders: the objective and efficient orientation of decision-making and the
minimization of the implied risks of this decision. Thus, these devices may be understood as
intentional instruments of creation and implementation of cultural and political order, that is, systems
of rules that facilitate the coordination and cooperation of social actors in situations of uncertainty
that determine the distribution of costs and benefits of collective action. Based on the theoretical
conceptions of governmentality and performativity, the research constructed a narrative about how
an abstract and polysemic conception of the notion of risk culminates in an objective proposition of
sovereign credit risk. The singular dimension addressed in the research is that the emergence of this
modern notion of risk is simultaneously accompanied by metric devices of classification, evaluation
and control. In the Brazilian case, this key between the ideal of credit risk and the classification
devices echoes in the tensions and disputes that arise in the economic-financial space. The
importance of the state in the governmentality of devices is undeniable. By inducing markets to use
risk rating metrics, given their regulation role, states become targets of these same devices as they
enter the sovereign bond market. Thus, in addition to the credit risk narrative, another contribution
of the study is the construction of a reference framework on the institutionalization of the Public
Debt Securities Market in Brazil. The research proposes a way to reflect on how the notions of credit
risk, metrics and finances have become fundamental institutions for contemporary states.