Given the dominant Eurocentric view and the influence of models from hegemonic nations on studies and public administration reforms, another perspective is introduced, having critical thinking about the historical roots of dependency and the current problems of South American societies as a basis. The continuous process of Westernization of America, through the colonial and neocolonial penetration, imposed the interests and culture of countries from the world's center, causing effects of refraction, resistance, and adaptation. The consequences of this ethnic conflict are at the origin of devaluation of legal order, marginality, and social anomy. The continental separatist revolution, which recognized rights to the majorities, was tainted by oligarchies, reproducing the inequalities and conditions of another way of dependency at the stage of capitalist neocolonialism. The national-popular political movements of the 20th century have promoted a critical consciousness, which had its counterpart among alternative currents in philosophy and social sciences, but they suffered a regression in face of the neoliberal offensive. The South American sociocultural framework shows a lack of State legitimacy, social disorder factors, and dysfunction in public sector management; this requires rethinking the theoretical framework of organizational studies, encouraging the communication of experiences among scientists and intellectuals from the region, reviewing the reform projects inspired by exogenous models, and designing new ways of intervention to promote popular participation, aiming at the horizon of integration and emancipation of our countries.
Critical Thinking; Organizational Studies; Eurocentrism; Dependency.