Comparison in Latin American Political Thought: Towards a Comparative Epistemology of the South?

Abstract

This article examines the historical development of comparative sensitivity in Latin American political thought during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, challenging the notion that regional comparative politics is merely an application of Western theories. Through an analysis of central theoretical currents, we argue that Latin America has produced original analytical frameworks that enrich global comparative inquiry. The article is organized into three parts: (1) the critical reception of approaches such as behaviorism, structural functionalism, rational choice theory, and neo-institutionalism; (2) autonomous developments, including Dependency Theory, decolonial thought, the Philosophy of Liberation, and Participatory Action Research; and (3) the argument that Latin America’s peripheral condition has generated a comparative epistemology in which comparison is constitutive of political knowledge rather than merely methodological. We conclude that comparison has functioned as a form of epistemic resistance, regional identity construction, and political imagination, making a significant contribution to a genuinely global and decolonized political science.