The promotion of racial (in)equality in the public service: bureaucracy, activism, and affirmative action at the Rio Branco Institute
Affirmative Action; Racial Quotas; Public Sector Entrance Examination; Racial Inequality; Representative Bureaucracy; Diplomacy
The thesis aims to understand the results and impacts of affirmative action in the public bureaucracy in terms of combating racial inequality. To this end, we sought to identify the number of self-declared blacks who benefited from affirmative action; what was the impact of this black presence in the bureaucracy, in terms of possible action in favor of their group of origin, and in what way these two aspects help combat racial inequality. Two theoretical frameworks were mobilized for this discussion, the theory of inequalities and that of representative bureaucracy. The combination of both allowed an analysis at the institutional level of affirmative action and public bureaucracy, broadening the very conception of affirmative policies, beyond their justification based on equality, difference, and diversity, highlighting their function of combating racial inequality. The research method adopted was a field study, referring to diplomatic career entrance, which has both the Affirmative Action Program - Vocational Scholarship, under the Rio Branco Institute, and which is aimed at preparing black people for the competition, as well as the reservation of vacancies for black people, under Law No. 12,990/2014. The corpus of the case study was based on primary and secondary sources, as well as interviews. Through the research conducted, it was possible to identify the increase of self-declared black people in the diplomatic career, democratizing and elitizing changes in the selection process, and their impact on beneficiaries of affirmative action. It was also possible to identify the agency of these people in combating racial inequality, which characterizes what is called an active representative bureaucracy. It is concluded that studying legal institutes in their practice helps to identify their potential and their limits, especially in an interdisciplinary approach. It was shown that it is necessary to approach affirmative action from the point of view of effectively combating racial inequality and that an exclusive focus on the selective admission process is not sufficient. It was identified, finally, that it is necessary that people linked to the racial issue, black and non-black, have conditions to act, and the bureaucratic structure may become an impediment or an ally in this process.