This translation has been automatically generated and has not been verified for accuracy.

It is probable that the survival of certain cultural traditions, considered by the populations of the Andean area as positive and favorable to a strong collective identity, prevents the advent of a modern order in the political-institutional sphere, based on the rationality of human relations, the rule of law and democratic practices. And precisely this lack of a political-cultural modernity can be seen as the main component of a still very expanded mentality that makes it difficult to establish a rational, democratic and pluralistic culture, on the one hand, and the creation of a more or less broad social wealth, on the other.

During the last half century, the core Andean countries —Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia— has undergone remarkable modernization processes: a marked specialization of roles and functions, an intense differentiation of social fabrics and an unprecedented expansion of the middle strata. The most important thing, however, is the survival of pre-modern mentalities in the midst of the accelerated modernization process. The term pre-modern here refers to authoritarian, pre-rational, conventional-conservative and traditionalist attitudes, which persist in parallel with the adoption of modern Western norms in the economic sphere, public administration and academia.