I have been trying to research the relationship between coloniality and democracy for quite a while. My interest on this connection started while reading Mignolo’s The Darker Side of Western Modernity where he tracked fundamental concepts such as capitalism, science, industry, democracy and human rights to the rise of modernity. And while I had glimpses of the connection from a few sources, this article provides a very clear picture for each of us to ponder this relationship that has significant impact on the geo-politics of global south (for full article, please go to the link).
Luciana Ballestrin
“Currently, the imposition of democracy through either humanitarian or military interventions from outside, represents a paradox in practical terms (or moral terms to ensure its legitimacy). “We have moved on from a characterization of “people without writing” of the 16th Century, to “people without history” in the 18th and 19th Centuries, and “people without development”, in the 20th Century and more recently, “people without democracy” in the 21st Century ”(Grosfoguel, 2008: 48). By dehumanizing democracy and human rights and turning them into sterile, strategic discourses, the answers are no less violent:
“If Eurocentric thinking claims “democracy” to be a Western natural attribute, Third World fundamentalisms accept this Eurocentric premise and claim that democracy has nothing to do with the non-West. Thus, it is an inherent European attribute imposed by the West. (…).Third World fundamentalisms respond to the imposition of Eurocentred modernity as a global/ imperial design with an anti-modern modernity that is as Eurocentric, hierarchical, authoritarian and antidemocratic as the former (Grosfoguel, 2008: 73)”
(99+) (PDF) (2015) Coloniality and Democracy – english version | Luciana Ballestrin – Academia.edu
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