Bernd Reiter provides a useful and insightful examination of Brazil's democratic failure. His ‘central argument … that societal inequalities undermine democracy’ (p. 145) challenges the (generally) optimistic view of civil society as a democratising force across the region. Instead, democracy is being strangled through a racial zero-sum game where ‘included’ whites protect their social and economic status over ‘excluded’ blacks. Using the extreme example of Bahia state, where the population is predominantly black but treated as a minority, Reiter extends Pierre Bourdieu's concept of relational capital to include race, with ‘whiteness remain[ing] a cultural category, signifying superiority and well-deserved privilege’ (p. 5). Since the mid-twentieth century this has been based less on biological grounds than on an affinity with European attitudes and mores. This shift in thinking has also coincided with others regarding power and the people, the growth of the state and the transition from authoritarianism to democracy. Throughout, the included have remained one step ahead of the excluded.
That point is made explicit in the reproduction of inclusion/exclusion through the education system in chap. 4. Until the 1950s, access to public schools was limited largely to the included. When the system began to open up and quality fell, the included fled to selective private schools, abandoning the public schools to the poor. Reiter doesn't say so, but this distinction has persisted in higher education to date: the more prestigious – and selective – public universities are dominated by the included, while poorer students attend the less well-regarded private institutions. For the poor and excluded in the public school system, there is a further blow: not only are the schools badly resourced, with poorly paid, insufficient and often absent teachers, but the students and their parents are also usually blamed by the same teachers, principals and policymakers for poor performance and results.
The following four chapters offer additional accounts, mainly through interviews and participant observation, of how the excluded are kept at a distance by the included across both the public and private spheres. Especially striking is the examination of how Brazilian social inequality begins at home, with chap. 5 showing how racial separation and paternalistic relationships between employer and maid have become normalised. Reiter notes the precariousness of the maid's position, the language and actions used to deny her autonomy (for example, the use of the term ‘girl’) and the location of maids' living quarters by the kitchen and separated from the rest of an apartment – including in modern buildings.
Chap. 6 reinforces this paternalism within the public sphere. Reiter reveals that of 17 NGOs at work in the Bahian state capital, Salvador, only four had at least 50 per cent race-conscious Afro-Brazilians in decision-making positions (p. 98). This means that ‘most civil society organisations are indeed dominated by the included, who have taken it upon themselves to make decisions for their excluded clients instead of with them’ (p. 89). Even when the population is encouraged to participate, as shown in chap. 7, its involvement is marginalised. Although social movements and new political institutions such as the participatory budget supposedly exist to make democracy more substantive, the Bahian case reveals the contrary. Whether in education (public schools' management and community schools), urban planning or even Salvador's own participatory budget process, attempts by the historically excluded to participate and take ownership have been continually marginalised by dominant groups.
That the excluded are denied their rights may be explained by the prevalence of a Brazilian ‘political class’ that is dealt with in chap. 8. A political class of elected representatives and civil servants who distinguish themselves from the people on educational grounds, principally through a university degree, has persisted since the colonial period. Rather than seeing themselves as public servants accountable to the people, their main aim is to protect the social status of themselves and their associates. The result of this division is that the have-nots are obliged to defer to state representatives for favours given in the form of clientelism and patronage.
That education has historically been seen as a privilege rather than a right poses particular problems for contemporary Brazilian democracy. Much effort has been spent since 1995 on reforming the system, including the rationalisation of responsibilities, constitutionally guaranteed funding for primary education (FUNDEF) and various assessment and evaluation methods.
The problem with these changes, though, is that they largely constitute a ‘managerial revolution’ (as Fernando Henrique Cardoso's education minister, Paulo Renato Souza, titled his book on the subject in 2005) rather than a social transformation. Consequently, Reiter is right to be sceptical of the supposed final democratisation of Brazilian politics and society following Lula's election in 2002. In education, the Lula presidency has taken its cue from its predecessor rather than from its historic association with the renowned educationalist Paulo Freire, whose ‘pedagogy of the oppressed’ sought to overturn authoritarianism from below (and who was himself education secretary for the PT administration in São Paulo city between 1990 and 1991). Instead, the main achievements of the current government have been the expansion of FUNDEF to include pre-schools and secondary schools and the introduction of grants for poorer students to attend private (as opposed to public) universities (ProUni).
Ultimately, although Reiter's analysis of Brazil's democratic weakness and pervasive social inequality is excellent, it arguably falls at the last hurdle. He concludes that ‘Democracy … must translate into everyday life if it is have any meaning’ (p. 141) and echoes his support for social theorists such as John Dewey and Amy Gutmann, who see the importance of acting democratically in schools if they are to become democratic (p. 110). However, as his book demonstrates, Brazilian society is seared through with strong social prejudice and injustice; despite the best efforts of the excluded to overcome their marginalisation, they continue to be thwarted from their self-styled betters from above. On this most important question – what is to be done? – Reiter leaves us hanging.
