Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Conceitos oitocentistas de cidadania: liberalismo e igualdade**

2009; Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa; Volume: 44; Issue: 192 Linguagem: Português

2182-2999

Cristina Nogueira da Silva,

Social and Political Issues

O principio da igualdade teve, no liberalismo classico, um significado que podia estar para alem da “igualdade perante a lei”, contendo tambem a ideia de uma igualizacao socioeconomica, educacional e ate “civilizacional”. Nao obstante, o ordenamento juridico liberal oitocentista, alem de ter deixado quase intactas diversas situacoes de desigualdade herdadas do Antigo Regime (nomeadamente a escravatura), inventou formas novas de exclusao politica. Este artigo pretende mostrar como a ideia de progresso, ao permitir antever um sociedade igualitaria, ajudou a resolver as tensoes geradas pelo binomio igualdade/desigualdade, e analisa a forma como essa promessa de inclusao futura se reflectiu na invencao de categorias juridicas relacionadas com o estatuto civil e politico das pessoas “em transicao” para a plena cidadania. Palavras-chave: cidadania; igualdade; iluminismo; progresso; liberalismo; escravatura. Nineteenth century concepts of citizenship: liberalism and equality In classical liberal thought, equalizing principles meant more than just “equality before the law”; they also included the idea of a socio-economic, educational, and even “civilizational” equalization. Nevertheless, the nineteenth century liberal legal order has not only preserved some of the old legal discriminations of the Ancient Regime societies, namely those related to the institution of slavery; it also invented new forms of political exclusion. The aim of this article is to explain how the idea of progress has been important in solving the tensions generated by the binary couple equality/inequality, by allowing the pre-vision of a more egalitarian society in the future. It is also my intention to explain how that promise gave way to the emergence of legal categories related to political and civil personal status, which conformed to the notion that some persons were in transition to full citizenship.