ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that any one member of Brazilian society is simultaneously an individual and a person, being individualized and relational. If the world of the carnaval and of religion presented with an image of ourselves as masters of enormous confidence, creativity and hope in the future, the universe of civics and politics points to a much more arduous road, a road full of pessimism and distrust. In Portugal and Brazil, the purpose of universal laws was not to liberalize politics or economics but to achieve justice as manifested in the corrective, compensatory capacity of the state. Within the specific political dynamic of Western Europe, the concept of citizenship was a powerful instrument for the establishment of universal rules as a way of counterbalancing and offsetting the set of privileges crystallized in social differentiations and local hierarchies.
