Comparative Political Theory: A Postcolonial Critique

Abstract

Political theory has been rightly accused of being a Eurocentric enterprise, one that has constructed a canon that is composed almost exclusively of texts produced in what we have come to think of as Europe, and one which is based on con- cepts and categories that are borne of a European history, and are not necessarily universalizable. This paper considers and develops that critique from the viewpoint of postcolonial theory, and asks whether political theory can be reformulated and thus ‘rescued’, as Comparative Political Theory tries to do or whether it is an inherently and irremediably Eurocentric enterprise.