This Master's Thesis deals with the sociological phenomenon called affirmative action, which has appeared in different forms in many countries during the second half of 20th century. This topic, as rather complex and overlapping fields of more social sciences, is being widely discussed in the society. In some countries, application of affirmative action brings controversy and even division in the communities. This thesis aims to find the substance of affirmative action and compare it with the principles of equality before law. These topics are discussed in their sociological, psychological and legislative dimensions. The analysis stems from examples of particular causes and recent key judicial decisions in the United States of America, the European Union and India, illustrating legal aspects of affirmative action in different regions. Their discussion tries to point out the different dimensions of affirmative action, including the motivations for implementing it in the society and the following public reflections. Author's main concern is targeted to the relation between different aspects of affirmative action and the main elements of the idea of equality before law. Difference between social engineering approaches and good intention of legislator may be very subtle and politically dependent. In the...

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-23T14:01:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Wilson Camerino dos Santos Junior.pdf: 3088598 bytes, checksum: 134b5a2bb04e4dbe6ea5bffdc259df30 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-09-28 / This research aims to analyze educational policies which were implemented in Brazil, to meet the objectives of the Transfer Program Income Bolsa Família. Uses as theoretical and methodological authors Bobbio (1998), Castel (2009) and Weber (2005). The methodology elencada comparative tests were applied to social sciences, using a comprehensive array of Weber (2005) and Schneider and Schmitt (1998), as a means to understand how the state manages the cash transfer program, specifically the fulfillment of compliance education. The choice by comparative tests is the propitiation of non hierarchical data constructed during the field, but by an understanding of the different processes of power relations established in the management of the cash transfer program. The techniques used were quantitative and qualitative. Of quantitative research processes, constructed from graphics, the panorama of the concentration of the beneficiaries of the Bolsa Familia in Brazil, indicators of school attendance and the reasons for the breakdown of cross education. Of qualitative techniques, made use of semistructured interviews with operators and auxiliary municipal master, who were selected in different counties capixabas through the poverty map of Espirito Santo. This instrument prepared by the Institute Jones dos Santos Neves. It also examines laws that instituted the Bolsa Familia and also the Manual System Presence. We constructed theoretical frameworks in order to synthesize the laws and Attendance System manual. In the results, the Bolsa Família appears arising from the reform of the bureaucratic state apparatus that occurred in Brazil in the 1990s as a means to contain the advance of social issues in Brazil, which culminated in the passage of excluded groups to desfiliados segments. Under the reform of the State, the reflections lie conditionalities, the compensatory and targeting as instruments of state control of the territory for the exercise of power. The focus is also considered positive discrimination, supporting the implementation of public policies, providing directions shares the targeted audience and highlighting other population demands public social policies. Also appears in search disparate concentration of beneficiaries of Bolsa Familia in Brazil, requiring a greater focus on policies to combat poverty in different regions. Policies to combat poverty, education and the enforcement of conditionalities should be implemented in different models such as the graphs indicate the panorama of Bolsa Familia in Brazil, as well as indicators of the municipalities surveyed. Data System Presence point to new categories of poverty that creates the State, through the impoverishment and breaks the feeling of belonging to justify the breaking of cross education. The income transfer programs, as they commit receiving money on school attendance, instructed the school management poverty. The interviews suggest that educational policies materialized to meet the objectives of the monetary benefits are, in most cases, induction of the Federal Government, the municipalities with low offsets and no consideration of the federative state. The programs are part of the circuit management and poverty in school are not built in order to meet the specific educational beneficiaries of Bolsa Família. The research proposes an amendment Presence System to improve the management of the financial benefit, was diagnosed as a lack of physical infrastructure and human municipalities for a program performance, low articulation between Municipal, as a whole, to achieve the monitoring of the beneficiaries, and the management of conditionalities is reduced to mere school attendance. That highlights the exercise of poverty by the school management, data contained in the research, says the worsening conditions of teaching and limits the fulfillment of the right to education in its fullness of human and citizen / Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo analisar quais políticas educacionais foram implementadas no Brasil, para atender aos objetivos do Programa de Transferência de Renda Bolsa Família. Utiliza como referenciais teóricos e metodológicos os autores Bobbio (1998), Castel (2009) e Weber (2005). A metodologia elencada foram os exames comparativos aplicados às Ciências Sociais, utilizando a matriz compreensiva de Weber (2005) e Schneider e Schmitt (1998), como meio de entender a forma como o Estado administra o programa de transferência de renda, especificamente o cumprimento da condicionalidade educação. A escolha pelos exames comparativos é pela propiciação da não hierarquização dos dados construídos durante o campo, e sim por uma compreensão dos diferentes processos das relações de poder estabelecidas na gestão do programa de transferência monetária. As técnicas utilizadas foram quantitativas e qualitativas. Dos processos de pesquisa quantitativos, construiu-se, a partir de gráficos, o panorama da concentração dos beneficiários do Programa Bolsa Família no Brasil, indicadores de frequência escolar e os motivos que justificam a quebra da condicionalidade educação. Das técnicas qualitativas, fez-se uso da entrevista semiestruturada com os operadores auxiliares e máster municipal, que foram selecionados em diferentes municípios capixabas, por meio do mapa da pobreza do Estado do Espírito Santo. Instrumento este elaborado pelo Instituto Jones dos Santos Neves. Além disso, analisa as legislações que instituíram o Bolsa Família e também o Manual do Sistema Presença. Foram construídos quadros teóricos com a finalidade de sintetizar as legislações e o manual do Sistema Presença. Nos resultados, o Programa Bolsa Família aparece advindo da reforma dos aparelhos burocráticos estatais que ocorriam no Brasil, na década de 1990, como meio de conter o avanço da questão social no território brasileiro, que culminava na passagem de grupos de excluídos para segmentos desfiliados. No âmbito da reforma do Estado, as reflexões situam as condicionalidades, as contrapartidas e a focalização como instrumentos de controle estatal do território para exercício do poder. A focalização também é considerada uma discriminação positiva, corroborando a implementação de políticas públicas, propiciando direcionamentos das ações a determinado público-alvo e colocando em evidência outras demandas da população público das políticas sociais. Também aparece na pesquisa a concentração discrepante dos beneficiários do Bolsa Família no Brasil , sendo necessário a maior focalização das políticas de combate à pobreza em diferentes regiões brasileiras. Políticas de combate à pobreza, de escolarização e fiscalização do cumprimento das condicionalidades devem ser implementadas em modelos diferenciados, como indicam os gráficos do panorama do Bolsa Família no Brasil, bem como os indicadores dos municípios pesquisados. Os dados do Sistema Presença apontam para novas categorias de pobreza que o Estado cria, mediante o empobrecimento e a quebra do sentimento de pertencimento, para justificar a quebra da condicionalidade educação. Os programas de transferência de renda, ao vincularem o recebimento monetário à frequência escolar, encarregaram a escola da gestão da pobreza. As entrevistas apontam que as políticas educacionais materializadas para atender aos objetivos do beneficio monetário são, em sua maioria, indução do Governo Federal, com baixas contrapartidas dos municípios e nenhuma contrapartida do ente federativo estadual. Os programas fazem parte do circuito de gestão da pobreza na escola e não são construídos com a finalidade de atender às especificidades educacionais dos beneficiários do Programa Bolsa Família. A pesquisa propõe uma alteração do Sistema Presença para melhoramento da gestão do benefício financeiro, pois foi diagnosticada a falta de estrutura física e humana nos municípios para um desempenho do programa, baixa a articulação entre as Secretarias Municipais, como um todo, para a realização do monitoramento dos beneficiários, e a gestão das condicionalidades é reduzida a simples frequência escolar. Destaca que o exercício da gestão da pobreza pela escola, contido nos dados da pesquisa, aponta o agravamento das condições do trabalho docente e limita o cumprimento do direito à educação em sua plenitude de formação humana e cidadã

Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / A adoção da política de ações afirmativas no Brasil abriu um extenso debate sobre a ausência de investimentos do Estado em políticas universais, as desigualdades raciais, e a própria desmistificação da democracia social como uma hipótese para a racialização das políticas sociais. Os pressupostos deste debate são abordados neste trabalho através da experiência da UERJ, uma das universidades pioneiras a adotar o sistema de cotas no vestibular. Buscando problematizar estes eixos de discussão, e aprofundar questões como: raça, o acesso à universidade e o desafio à permanência, foram realizadas entrevistas com os estudantes cotistas da UERJ. Estas entrevistas descrevem através das trajetórias sociais destes jovens, o perfil das ações afirmativas na universidade, a importância desta política como um direito para o ingresso ao ensino superior, e a dificuldade de permanecer e concluir a graduação. / Since de positive discrimination was adopted in Brazil, the universities won a diferent way to give the access to students. The first university to experiment this politic was UERJ that with the law n o. 4151/2004 reserved 20% of it vacancy in vestibular to black people, 20% for public students and 5% for ethnics minorities and deficient. For the society and the students, the positive discrimination brings a lot of changes related to demystification of social democracy, absence of investments became from State politics and racial unequalits. With this argument, it will be exposed in this dissertation the UERJ case, where was done a research with cotist students. Using interviews, these students will talk about their life problems before entering in the university and the importance of positive discrimination to get a opportunity to achieve and remain in the university.

Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / A adoção da política de ações afirmativas no Brasil abriu um extenso debate sobre a ausência de investimentos do Estado em políticas universais, as desigualdades raciais, e a própria desmistificação da democracia social como uma hipótese para a racialização das políticas sociais. Os pressupostos deste debate são abordados neste trabalho através da experiência da UERJ, uma das universidades pioneiras a adotar o sistema de cotas no vestibular. Buscando problematizar estes eixos de discussão, e aprofundar questões como: raça, o acesso à universidade e o desafio à permanência, foram realizadas entrevistas com os estudantes cotistas da UERJ. Estas entrevistas descrevem através das trajetórias sociais destes jovens, o perfil das ações afirmativas na universidade, a importância desta política como um direito para o ingresso ao ensino superior, e a dificuldade de permanecer e concluir a graduação. / Since de positive discrimination was adopted in Brazil, the universities won a diferent way to give the access to students. The first university to experiment this politic was UERJ that with the law n o. 4151/2004 reserved 20% of it vacancy in vestibular to black people, 20% for public students and 5% for ethnics minorities and deficient. For the society and the students, the positive discrimination brings a lot of changes related to demystification of social democracy, absence of investments became from State politics and racial unequalits. With this argument, it will be exposed in this dissertation the UERJ case, where was done a research with cotist students. Using interviews, these students will talk about their life problems before entering in the university and the importance of positive discrimination to get a opportunity to achieve and remain in the university.

Submitted by admin tede (tede@pucgoias.edu.br) on 2016-09-01T19:05:08Z No. of bitstreams: 1 THALES OLIVEIRA JANUÁRIO.pdf: 1248062 bytes, checksum: f0fa0ccd12ad562c477e93462340d1b0 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-01T19:05:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 THALES OLIVEIRA JANUÁRIO.pdf: 1248062 bytes, checksum: f0fa0ccd12ad562c477e93462340d1b0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-14 / This work has been developed with the goal of investigating the importance of education to individuals, their inclusion in society, and its relationship with the law. To this end, among the addressed problems, the main one was to assess the extent to which the federal government’s public policies have been effective in order to provide the educational inclusion of impoverished people. It was investigated the hypothesis that such policies have been able to offer these people a certain level of social inclusion, allowing them to exercise their rights hitherto inaccessible, even though it is necessary to improve a great deal. The preparation of this text was possible through the methodology of a survey and a bibliographic analysis of some social scientists’ and philosophers’ works, in addition to legislative and judicial processes. First of all, we began with the premise that education is an activity that aims to prepare man for life through knowledge, feelings, and judgments, contributing to the formation of an independent and free rational capacity. Secondly, we consider as an axiom that the law is a set of norms of social regulations, created and administered by the State with the aim of achieving justice. Thus, we can state that both education and the law are aimed at the achievement of justice and social equality. However, over time, society has become extremely unequal, particularly in economic terms, resulting in the inadequate functioning of those social mechanisms. Through the analysis of some works by Rousseau, Marx, Paulo Freire, among other thinkers, we have reached the understanding that men organized in civil society have become morally corrupt, so that in order to achieve their own good, they do not mind causing suffering to others. Thus, men began to perpetuate a series of oppressions, creating severe social inequalities which, in effect, are true unjustified injustices expect as a punishment. The oppressor statuses, enjoyed by some privileged people, and the oppressed conditions, endured by the rest of society, always generate conflicts that the oppressors cannot win, since if they eliminated their opponents, they would also eliminate their exploitation material. As a consequence, the oppressors act through means that avoid the struggle, instilling fear in the oppressed to stay away from the confrontation, by offering them false favors to accept oppression, also conditioning them ideologically, through discourses, to wish and defend oppression. Some of these mechanisms are originally conceived with this goal of oppression, whereas others are in fact legitimate institutions that have been usurped by the oppressors who establish the outlines they need to ensure perpetuated oppression. That is the case of the schools that, in principle, should be the privileged place of education, where people would be able to free their minds. However, through a series of unfounded practices, at least from a libertarian standpoint, the oppressors transform schools into a mechanism of alienation of people, so that they remain in the situation of oppression. In the classrooms, it is passed on only the type of knowledge necessary to turn people into objects susceptible to exploitation. There, on a smaller scale, it is reproduced oppressing practices so that when they leave school, people are already accustomed to being subjugated. In addition, when analyzing the situation of the law, we realize that the State, although it has been conceived as a social institution that aims at securing the freedom of all, it has also been appropriated by the oppressors who have turned it into a legitimating mechanism of their harmful practices. Finally, we will study a Brazilian case that consists in the creation of legal instruments in order to beautify the education with outlines of combativeness against oppressions, through positive discrimination against people in a situation of social disenfranchisement / Trata-se de trabalho desenvolvido com objetivo de pesquisar acerca da educação, sua importância para com os indivíduos, sua inserção em meio a sociedade e a relação com o direito. Para tanto, dentre as problemáticas foi elencada como a principal conceber se políticas públicas do governo federal foram efetivas no sentido de propiciar a inclusão educacional, acadêmica de pessoas hipossuficientes, partindo da hipótese que conseguiram conferir certo grau inclusão social a tais pessoas, garantindo o exercício de direitos até então inacessíveis, mas sendo necessário ainda avançar muito. Através da metodologia de levantamento e análise bibliográfica de obras de cientistas sociais e filósofos, de processos legislativos e julgamentos, foi possível desenvolver o texto. Estabelecendo que a educação é uma atividade de preparar o homem para vida, através de conhecimentos, sensações e juízos, formando nele um indivíduo de capacidade racional independente e livre; bem como estabelecendo que o direito é um conjunto de normas de regramento social, criadas e exercidas pelo Estado, com fim de se alcançar a justiça; podemos dizer que ambos se destinam a consecução de justiça e igualdade social. Todavia, a sociedade ao longo dos tempos tornou-se extremamente desigual, principalmente em termos econômicos, implicando no não funcionamento adequado destes mecanismos sociais. Analisando Rousseau, Marx, Paulo Freire et cetera, pudemos chegar ao entendimento de que o homem organizado em sociedade civil foi moralmente corrompido, de forma que ao buscar realizar o próprio bem não se importava em causa sofrimento aos demais, de forma que passou a perpetrar uma série de opressões, criando assim severas desigualdades sociais que em última análise são verdadeiramente injustiças que não se justificam senão como sendo um castigo. A condição de opressor de alguns privilegiados e a condição de oprimidos de todo o restante gera sempre conflitos, dos quais os opressores não podem sair vencedores, pois se eliminarem seus oponentes eliminam também seu material de exploração. Desta forma, os opressores agem criando mecanismos que evitam a luta, incutindo medo nos oprimidos de intentarem esta luta, oferecendo falsos favores para que aceitem a opressão, e ainda, condicionando-os ideologicamente a quererem e defenderem a opressão através de discursos. Alguns destes mecanismos são originalmente concebidos com este fim de opressão, outros tantos são na verdade instituições legítimas que foram apoderadas pelos opressores que deram os contornos que queriam para garantir a opressão perpetuada. É o caso das escolas, que originalmente seriam a casa da educação, local que as pessoas poderiam procurar para libertar suas mentes. Contudo, através de uma série de práticas infundadas do ponto de vista libertário, os opressores transformaram a escola em um mecanismo de acondicionamento das pessoas para a condição de oprimidos. Dentro das salas de aulas são transmitidos apenas os conhecimentos necessários a transformar as pessoas em objetos aptos para exploração, bem como são reproduzidas em menor escala práticas opressivas para que ao saírem das escolas as pessoas já estejam acostumadas a serem subjugadas. Ainda, analisando a situação do direito, percebemos que o Estado, embora tenha sido concebido como uma instituição social que visa garantir a liberdade de todos, também foi apropriado pelos opressores que o fizeram de mecanismo de legitimação de suas práticas nefastas. Por fim, estudaremos um caso brasileiro, que consiste na criação de instrumentos jurídicos, leis, portanto de direito, com o fim de ornar a educação com contornos de combatividade de opressões, através de discriminações positivas a pessoas em situação de hipossuficiência social.

La territorialisation du droit est au cœur des enjeux de l’amélioration du processus décisionnel et des représentations de la justice sociale. Précisément, sa mise en œuvre vise un double objectif : garantir l’efficacité de l’action publique et l’équité territoriale. Il apparaît de plus en plus nettement que la territorialisation du droit devient l’instrument juridique privilégié de la mise en œuvre des politiques de cohésion sociale et de réduction des inégalités territoriales. En un sens, la territorialisation de la règle de droit est l’expression et la manifestation de la dimension territoriale de la solidarité nationale. La différenciation territoriale de la règle de droit infère une approche alternative à l’application stricte de la conception universaliste de l’égalité par la promotion des discriminations positives territoriales. Par sa dimension rationaliste et fonctionnaliste, la territorialisation du droit permet de donner une réponse juridique adaptée et appropriée aux revendications identitaires et aux problèmes rencontrés par les territoires en difficulté. En permettant l’application des traitements spécifiques, la territorialisation du droit favorise l’acclimatation de la logique différencialiste dans l’ordre juridique français. Plus encore, ce processus de rationalisation et de modernisation des politiques de justice sociale conduit à mesurer les transformations de l’État-providence français. En même temps, l’évocation de cette approche fonctionnelle et instrumentale de la règle de droit suscite des interrogations sur son articulation avec l’ensemble des principes fondateurs et pluriséculaires de la République. On le sait, la prise en compte de la diversité contextuelle des territoires se traduit par une transformation de la lecture et de la représentation de l’unité du système juridique français. L’introduction de la territorialisation du droit entraîne un éclatement des lieux de production de politiques publiques, une atomisation du pouvoir normatif, une parcellisation de l’idée d’intérêt général et une catégorisation des sujets de droit. On ne peut en conséquence s’étonner de l’encadrement juridique drastique de cette nouvelle dynamique de gestion des politiques publiques. / Territorialization of right is at the heart of the challenges of improving decision-making and representations of social justice. Specifically, its implementation is twofold : to ensure the effectiveness of public action and territorial equity. It is becoming increasingly clear that the territoriality of law becomes the preferred legal instrument for the implementation of social cohesion policies and reduce regional inequalities. In a sense, the territorialization of the rule of law is the expression and manifestation of the territorial dimension of national solidarity. Territorial differentiation of the rule of law infers an alternative approach to the strict application of the universalist conception of equality by promoting regional positive discrimination .By its rationalist and functionalist dimension , territorialisation of right can give a suitable and appropriate legal response to identity claims and problems faced by the territories in difficulty. Allowing the application of specific treatments , territorialisation law favors the acclimatization of logic differentialist in the French legal system. More so, the process of rationalization and modernization of social justice policies led to measure changes in the French welfare state.At the same time , the evocation of this functional and instrumental approach to the rule of law raises questions about its relationship with all the founding principles of the centuries-old Republic. As we know, the inclusion of contextual diversity of territories results in a transformation of the reading and the representation of the unity of the French legal system. The introduction of the territoriality of right entails a breakdown of public policy production sites , atomization of the legislative power , a fragmentation of the idea of general interest and a categorization of legal subjects. It can not therefore be surprised by the drastic legal framework for this new dynamic management of public policies

This thesis analyses the process of women&rsquo / s legislative recruitment in Turkey by focusing on the interaction among the certain features of the Turkish political system including the attitudes of the party elite toward the enhancement of women&rsquo / s political representation. It has been demonstrated in earlier studies that one of the reasons behind women&rsquo / s low level of parliamentary representation in Turkey is the fact that the selectors in the political parties fail to support women candidates adequately in the elections. Related to that, women&rsquo / s legislative recruitment is also likely to be impeded by the unsupportive nature of the main dynamics of political system such as political culture, party system and the v electoral system. Considering the fact that these institutional and attitudinal factors are highly inter-related with each other, the insufficient number of women candidates nominated by the major social democratic party, the Republican People&rsquo / s Party in the 1990s, including the latest national elections on November 3rd, 2002 calls for an analysis of not only the attitudes of the RPP selectors toward positive discrimination mechanisms such as the quotas for women but also of the relevant party institutional factors rooted in the Turkish political system. The study contends that the RPP&rsquo / s women-friendly party culture and selectors&rsquo / positive perspectives towards women&rsquo / s political integration are not sufficient factors for the promotion of women&rsquo / s legislative recruitment within the party. The weakness of the intra-party democracy in the RPP which is particularly the result of the oligarchic structure and the problems with institutionalization significantly impede women&rsquo / s legislative recruitment within the party. The study has found that the low level of women&rsquo / s legislative recruitment in the RPP is a consequence of the interaction between the institutional and attitudinal factors within the RPP which perpetuates patriarchal elite oligarchy in the nomination process. The documented gap between the RPP&rsquo / s party rhetoric and practice in this study is found as the reflection of the party&rsquo / s problems in internalizing social democratic values.

The term affirmative action (U. S. English), or positive discrimination (British English) means positive steps taken to increase the representation of women and minorities in areas of employment, education, politics and business from which they had been historically excluded. In search for the roots of affirmative action I start at the very beginning of the US history describing institutionalized forms of slavery and later move on to segregation to demonstrate how deep and strong this exclusion was. Since the late 1960s this expression has been used to refer to policies that go beyond the simple prohibition of discrimination on grounds of race, national origin and sex in employment practices and educational system. These policies require further actions, affirmative actions, to make jobs and promotions and admissions to educational programs available to individuals from groups that have historically suffered from discrimination in gaining these opportunities or are, whether discriminated against or not by formal policies and informal practices, infrequently found in certain occupations or educational institutions and programs. In an effort to create an unprejudiced picture of this phenomenon of American modern society, I try to open my work for arguments of both sides, the proponents and the...

Ce travail vise à mieux comprendre les trajectoires et les conditions de vie de certains bénéficiaires de la politique des quotas, et également à connaître l’opinion de ces bénéficiaires sur l’efficacité du programme en tant qu’outil de lutte contre les inégalités raciales au Brésil. Pour cela, nous avons mené une étude de cas ayant comme but d’analyser l’expérience d’étudiants qui s’auto-identifient comme negros et qui ont eu accès à l’Université d’État de Rio de Janeiro, au Brésil, grâce à la politique de discrimination positive, et qui ont réussi à terminer leurs études universitaires et à obtenir leur diplôme. Nous avons mené des entretiens semi-structurés en soumettant des questionnaires contextuels à neuf anciens bénéficiaires de cette politique. Le guide d’entretien a été construit à partir de six domaines de recherche thématiques : la sélection de l’université et son intégration; l’identité raciale et le racisme; La permanence à l’université; l’intégration sur le marché du travail; la mobilité sociale et économique; et l’évaluation de la politique des quotas. Face aux résultats, nous pouvons dire que le système des quotas de l’UERJ, visant à garantir les droits historiquement niés à des groupes minoritaires tels que les Negros, par exemple, permet de changer de manière considérable les conditions de vie de ces bénéficiaires. Certes, il y a encore beaucoup à faire pour réduire les inégalités raciales et le racisme au Brésil, mais selon les résultats de la présente étude, la politique des quotas peut constituer l’une des étapes qui vont dans ce sens. / This research aims to better understand the trajectories and living conditions of certain beneficiaries of the quota policy and also to know the opinion of these beneficiaries on the effectiveness of the program as a tool to combat racial inequality in Brazil. To do so, a case study was conducted to learn about the experience of black self-declared alumni, who had access to the Rio de Janeiro State University, in Brazil, through affirmative action policy and have successfully completed their university studies and graduated. We conducted semistructured interviews and applied contextual questionnaires to nine former beneficiaries of the policy. The interview script was constructed from six thematic research areas: selection and integration of the University; racial identity and racism; permanence in the University; integration into the labor market; social and economic mobility; and evaluation of the quota policy. In view of the results, it can be said that the quota system in UERJ, which aims to guarantee rights historically denied to minority groups such as the blacks, for example, is helping to significantly change the living conditions of the beneficiaries. While there is still much to be done to reduce racial inequality and racism in Brazil, but from the results found here, apparently, the quota policy can be one of the steps in this direction.

This thesis entitled The Issue of Race in the Jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of the United States: The Evolving Interpretation of the Equal Protection Clause analyses the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of the United States concerning Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, in particular the following decisions: Plessy v. Ferguson, Sweatt v. Painter, Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, Grutter v. Bollinger, Gratz v. Bollinger, Fisher v. University of Texas and Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action. The analysis of the above- mentioned decisions illustrates the evolution of the philosophical background of the Supreme Court. After the Second World War, the natural-law legal philosophy began influencing the Justices and slightly overshadowed the positive-law current that was predominant in the pre- War era, in particular in the 19th century. This new philosophical background of the High Court help to constitutionally entrench the affirmative action policies by Justice Powell's opinion in Bakke and particularly by Grutter. However, the natural-law current has never become as dominant as the positive-law one in the 19th century, and as shown in Grutter's companion case of Gratz...