Ecuador’s Buen vivir

• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X15611126
• Date: 01 January 2016
• Published date: 01 January 2016
• Subject Matter: Articles

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 206, Vol. 43 No. 1, January 2016, 18–33

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X15611126

© 2015 Latin American Perspectives

18

Ecuador’s Buen vivir

A New Ideology for Development

by

Sara Caria and Rafael Domínguez

The concept of buen vivir (good living) has attracted interest far beyond its source in

the Andean ethnic tradition. It is being debated internationally as a contribution to devel-

opment theory and has become the fundamental purpose of Ecuador’s policy since the

adoption of the new constitution in 2008. There are, however, deep contradictions between

the constitutional prescriptions and spirit of buen vivir and recently formulated policies

that reveal a pragmatic approach on the part of the government. These contradictions sug-

gest that, far from being a strategic orientation for effective policy making, buen vivir

serves as a new ideology and is being used to support a reform plan based on a quite tra-

ditional understanding of the concept of development.

El concepto de “buen vivir” ha despertado interés más allá de su origen en la tradición

étnica andina. Su contribución a la teoría del desarrollo es parte del debate internacional

y también se ha convertido en el objetivo fundamental de la política pública del Ecuador

desde que se adoptó la nueva constitución en 2008. Hay, sin embargo, profundas contra-

dicciones entre las prescripciones constitucionales y el espíritu del buen vivir y algunas

políticas formuladas recientemente que revelan un enfoque pragmático de parte del gobi-

erno. Estas contradicciones sugieren que, lejos de ser una orientación estratégica para la

formulación de políticas más eficaces, el buen vivir sirve como una nueva ideología y está

siendo usado para apoyar un plan de reforma basado en una interpretación bastante tradi-

cional del concepto de desarrollo.

Keywords: Buen vivir, Development, Environmental sustainability, Ideology

President Rafael Correa came to power in Ecuador in 2007. In the previous

decade, the country had experienced a period of intense political and economic

instability: there had been eight presidents, and a deep financial and economic

crisis in 2000 had led to the dollarization of the economy and massive emigra-

tion to Europe and the United States.1 Correa, a charismatic and highly edu-

cated economist with training in Belgium and a Ph.D. from the University of

Illinois, had briefly served as finance minister in 2005 and founded a new party,

the Movimiento PAIS, a left-wing alliance of academics and middle-class and

indigenous sectors (Dávalos, 2014: 63, 202, 222–224). One of his 2006 campaign

promises was to refound the country through the drafting of a new constitu-

tion. The major challenge was to “articulate the struggle for social justice,

Rafael Domínguez is professor of economic history and institutions and head of the Center for

International and Ibero-American Cooperation at the University of Cantabria. Sara Caria is a

professor of international cooperation at the Institute of Higher National Studies in Quito,

Ecuador.

611126LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X15611126LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVESDomínguez and Caria

research-article2015

Caria and Domínguez / BUEN VIVIR AND DEVELOPMENT 19

equality, and the abolition of privileges with the construction of a society that

respected diversity and nature” (Vanhulst and Beling, 2014: 57).

He kept his promise, and a constitutional assembly was convoked in 2007.

With the explicit purpose of turning the page from the neoliberal reforms of the

1980s and 1990s (Friant and Langmore, 2014), the new constitution, approved

by referendum in September 2008, established buen vivir (good living or living

fully [Dávalos, 2014: 199]) as the foundational principle of the new state.2 The

concept has attracted interest among academics, politicians, and social move-

ments far beyond its source in the Andean indigenous tradition. In fact, it has

become an internationally debated topic (Fatheuer, 2011; Friant and Langmore,

2014; Guardiola and García-Quero, 2014; Hidalgo Capitán, 2014; Lalander,

2014; Monni and Pallotino, 2013; SENPLADES, 2013: 16; Vallejo et al., 2015;

Vanhulst and Beling, 2014; Waldmüller, 2014) and has been proposed as a

model for confronting major global environmental challenges (SENPLADES,

2013: 18). Some writers consider buen vivir an original contribution to the

debate about the concept of development built on a completely new set of val-

ues and perception of the world (Falconí, 2013; Gudynas and Acosta, 2011).

Others point to its similarities with the notion of development, especially

human and sustainable development, since the 1990s (Walsh, 2010). Whatever

one’s perspective on it, since the adoption of the new constitution buen vivir

has been the fundamental purpose of policy and the guiding principle of

national planning.3

This paper is not intended to provide insight into buen vivir’s origins, the

worldview on which it is based, or its contribution to the theory of (post)

development4 but to examine the extent to which its principles are being used

as guidelines for policy making. Despite the constitutional prescriptions and

the declarations of political authorities, some of the key policies implemented

in recent years reveal a deep contradiction with buen vivir principles and

spirit. The paper is organized into four sections. The first will provide a brief

characterization of buen vivir’s foundational elements. The second will pres-

ent a schematic description of three basic conceptions of ideology that can be

employed to clarify the relationship between the principles of buen vivir and

recent policies, which will be analyzed in the third. The last section will outline

some final considerations about the ideology of buen vivir and the role it plays

in building consensus for the Correa government’s modernization project.

Buen ViVir: A new PAct Of cOexistence

The preamble of Ecuador’s 2008 Constitution states that the task of the

Constituent Assembly was to build “a new form of coexistence, in diversity and

harmony with Nature and others, to achieve good living, sumak kawsay”5 (ANC,

2008: 15). René Ramírez, current minister of sciences and technology and for-

mer national planning minister and perhaps the member of government who

has written the most about buen vivir, calls it “a new social pact” or a “new pact

of coexistence” (Ramírez, 2010b: 55, 60, 62, 63, 64). Buen vivir implies both

material and spiritual well-being and is identified with a life of fullness (Macas,

2010: 14), equilibrium, and harmony with the various dimensions of the human