Thinking political science in an alternative way: the case of the Mexican Paulina Fernández Christlieb

Abstract

This article analyzes the case of the alternative investigative thinking of the Mexican political scientist, Paulina Fernández Christlieb, who proposed a critical approach to the paradigms of dominant political science based on electoral democracy and public policies. This work seeks to explain how Fernández Christlieb's proposal focused on analyzing the concept of the left and associating it with the debates on autonomy and anti-systemic mobilizations. Her starting point was her research on the Zapatista movement in Mexico. Documentary analysis is the methodology used. What the academic wrote, and on other contextual texts that support theoretical and investigative reflection. This Mexican scholar contributes to the studies of the left, autonomy, and anti-systemic struggles. As well as this work, in this sense, shows that it is possible to rethink the study of power and politics from other horizons theoretical and social experiences.