Discurso ético y praxis política. La institucionalización de la etnicidad en Colombia y Ecuador

Abstract

On base of the comparative study of indigenous movements in Colombia and Ecuador, this article analyzes the relationship between ethnicity and democracy. We assume that the discourse of ethnicity is basically an ethic discourse that irrupts into the social, the economical and the political fields in order to redefine democracy from the perspective of a multicultural state project. Nevertheless, we advert that the institutionalization of ethnicity in Ecuador and Colombia is threatened by the raising centralism and burocratism of indigenous organizations, as well as by the fraction line that traditionally separates the Andean organizations, with their class struggle orientations, and the Amazonian organizations, more interested in the cultural identity defense.