This article examines the hipotheses that the political and moral theory of egalitarian liberalism provides a sound justification for ethnic and race-based affirmative action, something that has been deemed true by academics and Supreme Coutr justices in Brazil. We proceed by analysing how key authors associated with egalitarian liberalism, such as John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin, Thomas Nagel e Robert Taylor, approached the subject. The method used for such analysis was textual interpretation, which was conducted as close as possible to each author's language and concepts. Our endeavor covered the evolution of the theme in the works of each one, with a special focus to Rawls's contribution. Instead of a single connection, we found that there is a gradation of opinions regarding the topic, which stretches from the explicit justification of these policies to their entire rejection on moral grounds. Therefore, our results show that there inequivocal link between the moral and political theory of egalitarian liberalism and the justification of ethnic and race-based affirmative action, despite common-sense and the fact that liberal egalitarians and the advocates of affirmative action often share the same location on the political spectrum in liberal democractic societies.
political theory; affirmative action; egalitarian liberalism; justice; Rawls