Affirmative action (or “reservation”) programs provide perhaps the most insightful window on the relationships among identifications, perceptions, and pro-poor policy. Affirmative action programs that designate particular sets of people as deserving favorable treatment both reflect and reinforce identifications and attributions. Affirmative action programs are distinguished from other benefit-targeting instruments by the ostensible goal of overcoming economic (and sometimes social) deprivations of variously defined groups. This is accomplished by providing privileged access to university admission, scholarships, university credits for community service work, bureaucratic jobs, and/or contracting with state institutions. Typically, part of the rationale is to redress past discrimination.