A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

cultural apparatus of their tradition. Not only do they have the right to
do so, their positions must be respected. At least they have a moral superiority
over the capitalist discourse. However it is less acceptable
when the discourse comes from intellectuals – indigenous or not – who
want to be critical, both about modernity and radical postmodernism,
and who tend to think that, from a political viewpoint, only cultural pluralism
can bring about positive results.
The other deviation is the instrumentalization of the vocabulary by some
of its adversaries or by the political power. Sumak kawsay is transformed
into ‘the redistribution of development’, as René Ramírez says (2010,
24). In other words, it is changed into the opposite of what it means.
This leads to promoting extractive policies or monoculture (to provide
the resources to be redistributed), using the language of buen vivir, without
even talking about transition. However, as Eduardo Gudynas says,
the concept is being banalized: it is used to refer to social assistance
policies in favour of the poor, or that it is only a claim by the indigenous
people, or repeated as a slogan that finally loses its meaning. In some
cases, the Government takes on the leadership of campaigns to promote
it that are not very participatory (Eduardo Gudynas, 2011, 15).
Other terms, like inter-culturalism meet a similar fate (Gabriela Bernal,
2011). Evidently this is the price of glory: if buen vivir were not so strong,
it would not be so easy to appropriate.
4. The political role of the concepts of sumak kawsay
and suma qamaña
Our remarks do not imply that the recognition of the notion buen vivir is
not politically important. This has been proved by the changes in the
Ecuadorian and Bolivian Constitutions and also by the drawing up of the
Buen Vivir National Plan in Ecuador. In both cases they show a serious
effort to understand the concepts and their possible applications. They
also involve a considerable intellectual honesty and have given rise to
intensive work.
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