Eurocentric bias as a theoretical category for rethinking democracy in Latin America

Abstract

Latin American social sciences present manifestations of Eurocentrism, an axial feature of the rationality of the colonial/modern power pattern. In the case of the debates on the problem of democracy that take place within the framework of contemporary political theory, this is presented in different forms and has consequences on the ways in which existing Latin American democracies are interpreted and on the prescriptive models that seek to guide their practice. This leads us to the need for epistemological vigilance over the concepts we use to think about political practices. In this article, we attempt to address some of the common concepts in those debates from the perspective provided by the critique of eurocentrism.