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Boletim de Análise Político-institucional: Dossiê temático: classes subalternas e instituições públicas. Brasília, Ipea, n. 35, jul. 2023

By Roberto Pires, Vincent Dubois, Ninive Machado, Rogério Medeiros, Gabriela Lotta.

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30th of september 2026

Alexis spire

Inequalities in ordinary relations with the state

Discussant: Sandro Busso

My presentation analyses the experience of public policies through an approach based on ordinary relations with the state – an expression that designates the set of practical experiences and symbolic representations that the governed have in relation to public authority. Ordinary relations with the state depend on relations of gender, class, race, and age, but they can also evolve over individual trajectories and as institutions themselves change. The ability to make state institutions work to one’s advantage requires competences that may be acquired either through the possession of educational capital, or through practical experience with officials, offices and procedures. Whether these are chosen relations (to assert a right) or constrained relations (to respond to a check), ordinary relations with the state take the form of power relations that also depend on intermediaries, who may be lay people (associations or trade unions) or legal professionals (lawyers). In the case of chosen relations with the state, the propensity to turn to a particular institution depends on the level of trust placed in it. In the case of constrained relations, the ability to defend oneself depends heavily on knowledge of one’s rights, with, again, marked variations according to social position. Finally, each confrontation with a state institution can in turn affect the representations that the governed have of that institution: such an encounter may acquire political significance and take on meaning within a broader interpretive framework, as in the case of certain forms of adverse treatment that members of minorities interpret as instances of discrimination.