Reframing Citizenship for a New World Order

The Second World War shifted the relationship between the defense of sovereignty, the expansion of the state’s capacity for projecting power, the distinction between the included and the excluded, the imposition of sacrifices, and the granting of rights and benefits. Nazism formalized the distinction between full citizenship of the members of the ethnic-national community and second-class citizenship for other “nationals.” In different contexts, the sacrifices shared during the war fostered notions of universal social rights. Still, contradictorily, the war also deepened the subordination of citizenship rights to the imperative of national security. The creation of Pan-American mechanisms for surveillance, deportation, and disenfranchisement of even natural-born citizens classified as “Axis subjects” strengthened US power of intervention in other countries in the name of “Hemispheric Security.” In Brazil, the promise of broader labor rights in return for the war effort had its implementation postponed due to the militarization of strategic productive activities. Vargas failed in his attempt to achieve international recognition for the “most advanced labor legislation in the world” because foreign observers state control over unions as a remnant of the defeated fascist ideology. The concept of “Racial democracy,” which was not a regime creation, proved more convincing in redefining Brazil’s international image for the postwar.