Abstract
The present contribution examines whether the brand of race-based affirmative action adopted in Brazil can be considered a multicultural policy as defined by Will Kymlicka. Besides its obvious theoretical import, this exploration is also a reply to those that have accused the policies of being an import from Anglo-Saxon multiculturalism, and thus inappropriate to Brazil. We will borrow the concept of societal culture from Kymlicka to assess the ways Brazilian affirmative action might interact with it. Then, we will examine the arguments in favor of affirmative action as they were used in the key institutional settings (the Constitution, Federal Government, Supreme Court, affirmative action programs, and the news media) to show that, in Brazil the affirmative action is not chiefly construed as a multicultural policy, that is, as a measure aimed at producing the recognition of cultural difference. There are traces of multiculturalist arguments in the Constitution, in public debate and in some key rulings of the Supreme Court, but the main arguments used to justify the affirmative action pertain to the overall conception of social justice much more akin to egalitarian liberalism.
Keywords:
Affirmative Action; Brazil; Multiculturalism; Will Kymlicka
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