As an attempt to contribute with the understanding of the expansion process of public enterprises in Brazil, the author proposes a typology which he finds will better fit his purpose. In this line of reflexion, he discards the orthodoxy of usual analytical models that typify public enterprises according to criteria like the following: fields of action (industry, finance, public works); origin of financial resources; the dichotomy deficit and superavit etc. The author contends that the best criterion to characterize the dynamics of growth of certain categories of governmental enterprises must be related with the way the State enters the economy throughout the different stages of the capitalistic development. For those reasons, the first part of the artic1e deals with criticizing the usual criteria of c1assification; and the second one, on the basis of current cases of public enterprises linked with the State government of Bahia, outlines a typological model of seven homogeneous groups (or categories) of enterprises in which one observes that their moments of institutionalization are associated with the various stages of regional economic development.A transformação das relações do Estado com as atividades produtivas, no sentido de garantir a reprodução ampliada do capital social ensejou, nestas últimas décadas, a expansão acelerada das empresas produtoras estatais. Sem embargo, se, por um lado, isto é verdadeiro, por outro, não menos é reconhecer o avanço significativo verificado na produção acadêmica devotada ao esforço de entender e tipificar as diversas facetas adquiridas pelo Estado capitalista e produzidas por estas relações transfiguradas.