Democracy and access to university in Brazil: a balance of recent history 1995-2017)

The text discusses the context of Brazilian Universities in the last twenty years and proposes to understand that historic period as characterized by important shifts, both in terms of its democratic expansion and elitist retraction. The analysis is organized in three moments, according to the Brazilian universities different recent cycles: the first cycle starts at the beginning of the 90's, coinciding with the Presidency of Fernando Henrique Cardoso; the second one starts between the beginning up to the midst of the years 2000, coinciding with the Presidencies of both Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Roussef, from the Labor Party (PT); the third cycle, already under its course, begins in 2017 after President Dilma's impeachment and the ascension of President Temer's political group.