Bolivia’s New Constitution: Towards Participatory Democracy and Political Pluralism?

Abstract

In Bolivia, rights to increased political participation and the recognition of indigenous political systems are interrelated. The new constitution of 2009 defines Bolivia as a representative, participatory and communitarian democracy. It incorporates enhanced mechanisms and institutions for participatory democracy. Moreover, new social rights have been anchored in the constitution and a plurinational state is supposed to be constructed. The article raises the question of whether the new constitution will change the relations between state and civil society considerably and whether a new democratic model is being established in Bolivia. I argue that there are many limiting factors when it comes to putting the emancipatory elements of the constitution into practice. These include the increased strength of the executive branch, the intent of the government to co-opt civil society organizations and to exclude dissident views, the resistance of the conservative opposition to losing some of its privileges, the deeprooted social inequality, the social conflicts and polarization, the resource dependence of the current economic model, and the authoritarian characteristics of indigenous self-governance structures. The article demonstrates that the new Bolivian constitution cannot create a new society but that the processes around the elaboration of a new basic law have contributed to considerable changes in the social, political and symbolic order.

From Transition to Domains of Transformation: Getting to Sustainable and Just Food Systems through Agroecology

“…Fourth, a discursive frame that promotes greater participation of different social actors and local communities in shaping the transition to sustainable food systems has been important in some places. The participation frame has helped to amplify the governance dimension of agroecology, and in some cases (e.g., Brazil) has helped to gain significant popular and institutional uptake of agroecology [71,[149][150][151][152].…”

“But the Law Won’t Help Us”: Challenges of Mobilizing Law 348 to Address Violence Against Women in Bolivia

“…Although the prevailing political strategy used by Morales was the adoption of culture as a political tool (Postero, 2010), space was also created for civil society organizations (CSOs) to challenge some of the deep-rooted links between cultural discrimination and gender. Such groups, some of which feature in this research, actively participated in the construction of the new constitutional text to ensure recognition for women’s rights that had previously been excluded (Schilling-Vacaflor, 2011). Their aim was to work through tensions and emerging conflicts, such as (a) between indigenous rights and women’s rights (Rousseau, 2011) and (b) between local and global legal frameworks more generally (see also Goodale & Merry, 2007).…”

Self‐Governance in Latin America: To What Extent Can Citizens Make Policy via Direct Democracy?

“…Generally, the adoption is understood to be the result of a perception that the institutions of representative democracy, notably political parties and legislative bodies, failed to fully serve the masses (Barczak, , p. 38). In this case, constitutional changes were demanded from “below” and meant to have an integrative social function that would strengthen the connection between citizens and government (Schilling‐Vacaflor, ).…”