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An enduring puzzle of race relations in Brazil is that for most of the 20th century this topic was conspicuously absent from politics, in spite of deep-rooted inequalities between whites and non-whites. The ideology of "racial democracy" effectively depoliticised the issue until the late 1990s, when a wide-ranging programme of affirmative action policies for Afro-Brazilians was implemented. / Beginning with the idea that the myth of racial democracy functioned as an ideological hegemony in the Gramscian sense, this dissertation seeks to explain the process through which public policies ceased to reflect this hegemonic ideology, and instead began to represent a counterhegemonic project. Contrary to traditional Gramscian analysis, I argue that a counterhegemonic project can be defended not only by civil society actors, but also by the state, and that the relative strength of counterhegemonic actors is often influenced by transnational factors. Indeed, I argue that when civil society actors lack the necessary strength to reach a leadership position in civil society that can counter the hegemonic order, a counterhegemonic confluence of civil society, state and transnational actors can produce this change. / An analysis of the evolution of racial politics in Brazil since the return of democratic rule in the 1980s demonstrates that such a confluence did indeed take place in Brazil, culminating at the United Nations World Conference Against Racism in Durban in 2001. A study of the implementation of admissions quotas for Afro-Brazilians in the state universities of Rio de Janeiro serves to confirm the importance of the contribution of the state and transnational actors, as well as to examine the limits of the confluence.

Orientador: Raquel Meneguello / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-16T08:50:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Vasquez_RodrigoAlonso_M.pdf: 1875429 bytes, checksum: 30e486e513f299f9f9490ea656f923ff (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Os cidadãos brasileiros majoritariamente apóiam a democracia como forma ideal de governo e apresentam baixos níveis de confiança institucional, sobretudo, ao Congresso Nacional e aos partidos políticos. Esse cenário, conforme os resultados da pesquisa mostram, não é indício de uma crise da democracia, mas sim da emergência de cidadãos críticos, que têm preferência pela democracia e estão insatisfeitos com o desempenho do regime e suas instituições. As análises feitas sugerem que a baixa confiança institucional está associada às experiências diretas e indiretas dos cidadãos com elas e às suas preferências políticas. Avaliações negativas com relação ao desempenho das instituições e impressões de que elas não agem de acordo com as suas normas legais, influem negativamente na confiança institucional e no apoio ao regime. Neste sentido, os constantes escândalos de corrupção envolvendo membros da elite-política administrativa nacional, que ocupam importantes cargos nas instituições de representação, reforçam as avaliações negativas dos cidadãos sobre estas e consequentemente, à baixa confiança institucional. Os dados aqui trabalhados são provenientes, principalmente, do survey "A Desconfiança dos cidadãos nas instituições democráticas", elaborado pelo Projeto Temático de mesmo nome, financiado pela Fapesp (processo 04/07953-8) / Abstract: The great majority of the Brazilian citizens do support democracy as the ideal form of government, but they do present low levels of institutional confidence - especially in the National Congress and in political parties. This background, confirmed by results of surveys, does not indicate a crisis in democracy. It points out the emerging number of critical citizens, who prefer democracy, but are not satisfied with the performance of the political system and its institutions. The analyses done tend to indicate that the low institutional confidence is associated to direct and indirect experiences of the citizens when dealing with such institutions and their political preferences. Negative evaluation regarding the performance of such institutions and the impressions that they do not act in agreement with legal norms, do have a negative influence in institutional confidence and in offering support to a democratic regime. In this sense, the constant scandals of corruption involving members of the national administrative political elite, who hold important offices in the representative institutions, reinforce the negative evaluations of the citizens and as a consequence, there is a low institutional confidence. All information used in this research mainly comes from a survey "A Desconfiança dos Cidadãos nas Instituições Democráticas" (Mistrust of Citizens in Democratic Institutions) elaborated by Research Thematic Project and financed by Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (Fapesp; process 04/07953-8) / Mestrado / Ciencia Politica / Mestre em Ciência Política

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Brazil and South Africa were both part of the global “third-wave” of democracy, the beginnings of their democratic transitions occurring in 1985 and 1994 respectively. Despite having been formerly subjected to decades of authoritarian rule, both countries experienced a modicum of democratic practice, however limited in franchise, under the previous regimes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the levels of support for democracy in Brazil and South Africa since democratic transition. Two types of political support are identified as crucial for democratic sustainability: diffuse support, or support for democracy’s intrinsic principles, and specific support, support which is conditional on the positive evaluation of the regime institutions and incumbents. These two types of political support are conceptualized as encompassing five levels or objects of political support, according to the Norris model: the political community, regime principles, regime performance (diffuse support), regime institutions and political actors (specific support). This study proposes that because vestiges of democratic norms and practices have been present within these countries’ political systems for some time, it is possible that they will manifest trends in support similar to much older, more established democracies. These global trends indicate that diffuse support for democracy is being maintained while specific support for democracy is waning. A longitudinal quantitative study was conducted, using consecutive waves of World Values Survey to operationalize support for democracy in terms of the five abovementioned political objects and the results of South Africa and Brazil compared. These results show that both case studies could be interpreted as having fairly high levels of diffuse support and decreasing levels of specific support for democracy. It is however acknowledged that results are not conclusive and further research is required, especially with respect to how respondents conceptualize the term ‘democracy’. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Brasilië en Suid-Afrika was albei deel van die globale “derde golf” van demokrasie, met die aanvang van hulle oorgang na demokrasie onderskeidelik in 1985 en 1994. Ten spyte daarvan dat hierdie twee lande voormalig aan dekades van outoritêre gesag onderwerp is, het albei, hoewel beperk in stemreg, ’n mate van demokratiese praktyk onder ’n vorige bestel ervaar. Die doel van hierdie studie is om die steunvlakke vir demokrasie in Brasilië en Suid- Afrika sedert hulle oorgang na demokrasie te ondersoek. Twee soorte politieke steun word geïdentifiseer as deurslaggewend vir demokratiese volhoubaarheid: verspreide steun – of steun vir die intrinsieke beginsels van demokrasie – en spesifieke steun – steun wat van die positiewe evaluering van die regime se instellings en ampsbekleders afhang. Hierdie twee soorte politieke steun word deur vyf konsepte voorgestel wat die vyf vlakke of voorwerpe van politieke steun volgens die Norris-model dek: die politieke gemeenskap, regimebeginsels, regimeprestasie (verspreide steun), regime-instellings en politieke akteurs (spesifieke steun). Hierdie studie stel voor dat, aangesien spore van demokratiese norme en praktyke vir ’n geruime tyd binne hierdie lande se politieke stelsels teenwoordig was, dit moontlik is dat hulle steuntendense sal toon wat aan baie ouer, meer gevestigde demokrasieë soortgelyk is. Hierdie globale tendense toon dat verspreide steun vir demokrasie gehandhaaf word terwyl spesifieke steun vir demokrasie aan die kwyn is. ’n Longitudinale kwantitatiewe studie is onderneem wat van opeenvolgende siklusse van die “World Values Survey” gebruik maak om steun vir demokrasie in terme van die vyf bogenoemde politieke voorwerpe uit te beeld. Die resultate van Suid-Afrika en Brasilië is daarna vergelyk. Uit hierdie resultate sou afgelei kon word dat redelik hoë vlakke van verspreide steun en dalende vlakke van spesifieke steun vir demokrasie in beide gevalle voorkom. Daar word egter erken dat resultate nie beslissend is nie en dat verdere navorsing nodig is, in besonder met betrekking tot respondente se begrip van die term ‘demokrasie’.