A Political Economy of Post-Secondary Education in Brazil - Affirmative action, Expansion and changes in Inequalities

• Grant number: 24/01888-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: April 01, 2024
• End date: March 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - Public Policies
• Principal Investigator: Marta Teresa da Silva Arretche
• Grantee: Tales Almeida Mançano Fernandes
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/07616-7 - CEM - Center for Metropolitan Studies, AP.CEPID

Abstract

This research examines the political economy of post-secondary education policy in Brazil, situated within the fields of comparative political economy and welfare state research. It analyzes how partisan politics and institutional factors form and change education policies, influencing educational stratification and inequality. Post-secondary education policies are framed as deeply embedded in Brazil's broader political economy dynamics. Engaging with theories that explain cross-national variation in educational inequalities - particularly the literature on skill/education regimes developed by Busemeyer (2014) - this study applies that framework to explain recent reforms in Brazil's education system, including affirmative action policies and the rapid expansion and market concentration of the private sector, and their impact on educational inequality. Furthermore, it evaluates how the Brazilian case relates to the skills regimes framework. The research employs a multi-method approach combining historical-institutional analysis, examination of partisan political dynamics, and cross-country quantitative comparisons. Objectives include a comprehensive review of theoretical approaches to education-inequality relationships and extending comparative political economy and welfare state debates to the Brazilian case. We propose a conceptual framework that emphasizes political and institutional factors for explaining national and time variation in educational inequality. The will compare Brazil's skill regime against OECD countries using cross national data on educational inequalities, with particular focus on 2009-2019, a period of significant policy changes and improved data availability through INEP's detailed microdata on Brazilian students. These datasets enable the production of original statistics that advance our understanding of the politics of educational inequality in Brazil.