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Rationalities of Alternative Democratic Relations: Proveniences from Bolivian Indigenous Democracies

Researcher name: Mara Bicas

Based on the theoretical framework of “Epistemologies of the South” (Santos, 2010), this project aims to study the indigenous deliberative conceptions and practices as contributing to question the naturalization of the Eurocentric democracy. Taking as a starting point the indigenous democracies based on community deliberation, interconnections between ‘human’ and the ‘nature’ and cosmologies that congregate duality and complementarity on the idea of taypi (balance), the main goal herein is to analyze the importance of the principles of balance of diversity in the Andean and Amazonian indigenous democracies of Bolivia. This makes us rethink the hegemonic idea of liberal-representative democracy and, ultimately, moving towards the horizon of an Intercultural Democracy. Starting from the indigenous movements Consejo Nacional de Ayllus y Markas del Qullasuyu (CONAMAQ) and Confederación de Pueblos Indígenas de Bolivia/Asamblea del Pueblo Guarani (CIDOB/APG) I will analyze the deliberative practices in the ayllu-marka (aymara-quechua) and tenta-tekoa (guarani). The Project tries to bring forth a dialogue of Europe with other rationalities of democratic relations by the idea of a permanent search for balance in the plurinational political pluralism.


Keywords: Community Paradigm–Western Paradigm; Alternative Rationalities of Relations; Communitarian Democracies; Bolivian Indigenous Movements; Epistemologies of the South
Countries of reference: Bolivia