Democracy and Political Participation of Minorities Epsy Campbell Barr I would like to thank Gay McDougall and the organizers for the invitation to this important seminar on the political participation of minorities. I invoke my ancestors for opening the road and accompanying us in the challenge of transforming democracy. 1. Democracy and Political Participation of Minorities From a wide perspective, the political participation of ethnic and cultural minority groups is a condition of democracy. If we consider democracy as a system of government through which people choose their representatives periodically and these in turn resolve with the resources of the State the needs of the citizenry, then the bodies of political representation should guarantee that majorities and minorities are represented in political decision-making and executive bodies, even at the most highest level. As previously mentioned, the firs requirement of democracy is representation, which implies the right and guarantee for members of minority groups to be able to present their names in popular voting lists with the real possibility of being elected, so that in spaces of political power the visions, proposals, and needs of these social groups are contemplated. Despite the fact that ethnic diversity has been recognized as a value for society, the real obstacles that ethnic and cultural minorities face, as well as sectors traditionally excluded from power structures, result in democratic systems that do not reach the basic requirement of representation. What has been called a democratic system hardly meets the requirement of fair and periodic elections, which most of the times leave real minorities outside the option of being part of the institutions through which decisions are made and the resources of society are distributed. For women who at some instance were determined to be minorities, their political participation continues to be extremely limited, but even more limited for women who are part of ethnic and cultural minority groups in society. My political proposal is based on the recognition that sexism and racism serve as structural bases of subordination and domination of some human beings over others. Intercultural democracy with parity has as an objective “the construction of a political formula that encompasses all the demands of subordinated sectors, among these racial, ethnic, and gender groups, and is focused on the reconsideration that of the actual role of the State and advocates a general change of mentality for all sectors of national society with respect to the idea of democracy and a homogenized nation. Intercultural democracy with parity calls into question the structure of the rules of the political game that are now valid, and claims that regional democracy should not conform with changing the photographs of those represented, but should give new meaning to the exercise of power, that should have as its only