Evo Morales and the political economy of passive revolution in Bolivia, 2006–15

Webber, Jeffery R.

doi:10.4324/9781315187501-6

Cited by 8 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The tertiary sector (commerce, financial services and services) has also grown at almost 6 per cent and all of the urban sectors have outperformed the sectoral growth in agriculture, which languishes behind at 3.29 per cent annually over the 10‐year period. Commerce and services do not contribute directly to capital production, however — although, as political economist Jeffery Webber (: 1868) highlights, they do provide the conditions for its reproduction — and represent the circulation of pre‐existing capital that concentrates at certain places rather than productive activities. Their growth rates are explained by underemployment and overall conditions of informality allowing for the flexibility of capital rather than an increase in investment or productivity.…”

Section: The Urban Working Classes In Contemporary Boliviamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These sectors have low job security, limited access to social services and consequently high levels of precarity. Part‐time work and underemployment remain prominent aspects of labour conditions under the MAS (Escóbar de Pabón et al., ), with workers in constant flux between employment activities and unemployment (Webber, ).…”

Section: The Effects Of the Mas Labour Officialdommentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Splitting the economy into five parts — the state, business, informal business, family and domestic service — they show that between 2001 and 2011 state sector employment has declined by almost 2 per cent, while informal businesses’ share of the labour market has jumped from 13.8 per cent to 22.4 per cent (see Table ). If we take the state and business sectors as proxies for the formal economy, argues Webber (: 1870), then employment has been increasingly informalized and concentrated where rates of extreme precariousness (that is, low income, high employment insecurity and limited access to social services) are at their highest (see Table ). Indeed, according to CEDLA's analysis, extreme precariousness has increased from 22.5 per cent in 2001 to 52.5 per cent in 2011 (Table ).…”

Section: The Effects Of the Mas Labour Officialdommentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, according to CEDLA's analysis, extreme precariousness has increased from 22.5 per cent in 2001 to 52.5 per cent in 2011 (Table ). This insecurity, coupled with the extension and intensification of the working day, contends Webber (: 1870), ‘operates politically as an invisible mechanism of control and discipline of the urban labour force’, further undermining workers’ rights.…”

Section: The Effects Of the Mas Labour Officialdommentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the ever‐deeper insertion of Bolivia into the global market as a primary commodity producer makes the economy more susceptible to fluctuations in global commodity prices and increases reliance on imports of foreign manufactured goods (Arze, ), undermining domestic production and aligning the interests of the state with those of international capital (Coronil, ). Under the MAS, the underlying patterns of ownership and accumulation have remained untouched, allowing multinationals to profit and continuing the state's role as guarantor of private property and a stable investment environment (Webber, ).…”

Section: The Effects Of the Mas Labour Officialdommentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Labour Bureaucracy and Labour Officialdom in Evo Morales's Bolivia

McNelly¹

2018

Development and Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Evo Morales has labelled his government the 'government of social movements', and much has been written on relations between social movements and the state in Bolivia since the turn of the century. The Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) -Bolivian Workers' Central -has, however, remained largely absent from discussions in much of the literature. This article seeks to analyse the position of the COB under Morales, and to explore the nature and consequences of its relationship with the government over the past 12 years. The article differentiates between the concepts of labour bureaucracy and labour officialdom and examines how they can be used as analytical lenses that shed light on the position of the COB today. The author argues that during Bolivia's neoliberal period the need to look after the COB bureaucratized union structures, as personal needs of the leadership were placed above those of the Bolivian working classes. This then allowed Morales's government to easily co-opt sections of the labour movements' leadership to form a labour officialdom, leaving the COB unable to challenge the continuation of the neoliberal structure of the economy and represent the majority of the country's working classes.

show abstract

Section: The Urban Working Classes In Contemporary Boliviamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Effects Of the Mas Labour Officialdommentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Effects Of the Mas Labour Officialdommentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Effects Of the Mas Labour Officialdommentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Effects Of the Mas Labour Officialdommentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Labour Bureaucracy and Labour Officialdom in Evo Morales's Bolivia

McNelly¹

2018

Development and Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Between Pachamama and Mother Earth: Gender, Political Ontology and the Rights of Nature in Contemporary Bolivia

Tola¹

2018

Feminist Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Focusing on contemporary Bolivia, this article examines promises and pitfalls of political and legal initiatives that have turned Pachamama into a subject of rights. The conferral of rights on the indigenous earth being had the potential to unsettle the Western ontological distinction between active human subjects who engage in politics and passive natural resources. This essay, however, highlights some paradoxical effects of the rights of nature in Bolivia, where Evo Morales’ model of development relies on the intensification of the export-oriented extractive economy. Through the analysis of a range of texts, including paintings, legal documents, political speeches and activist interventions, I consider the equivocation between the normatively gendered Mother Earth that the state recognises as the subject of rights, and the figure of Pachamama evoked by feminist and indigenous activists. Pachamama, I suggest, has been incorporated into the Bolivian state as a being whose generative capacities have been translated into a rigid gender binary. As a gendered subject of rights, Pachamama/Mother Earth is exposed to governmental strategies that ultimately increase its subordination to state power. The concluding remarks foreground the import of feminist perspectives in yielding insights concerning political ontological conflicts.

show abstract

State Governance and Micropractices of Power in the Process of Decolonizing the State in Bolivia

Ranta

2018

Forum for Development Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article investigates how multiple and nuanced micropractices of power work through everyday bureaucratic actions in the course of major state transformations. It argues that it is not solely the grand ideological battles or global asymmetries of power that impede the implementation of revolutionary political alternatives. More attention should be paid to the internal functioning of state governance and its micropractices of power in processes of change. Empirically, it examines the process of decolonizing the state in Bolivia, where the notion of vivir bien (living well) has been introduced into policy-making processes since 2006. Initially, it was portrayed as a democratizing and decolonizing policy alternative deriving-to an extent-from indigenous cultural heritage that provides locally grounded solutions to societal problems. While many of the outcomes of the shift in public policy have been critically assessed, there is still a lack in showing how difficulties in implementation emerge. By discussing the contested nature of everyday bureaucratic practices in Evo Morales' Bolivia, this article tries to fulfill the gap. It is demonstrated here that multiple everyday techniques, procedures, and routines of the state continue to create and reproduce various forms of coloniality. The ethnographic evidence of the continuation of neoliberal rationalities suggests that it is these exact-and assumingly insignificantbureaucratic routines that derogate vivir bien transformation agenda internally. Consequently, together with opposition and outright racism by public servants, it is shown that deep ruptures have emerged between political rhetoric of decolonization and concrete everyday actions amidst state bureaucracy.

show abstract

Evo Morales and the political economy of passive revolution in Bolivia, 2006–15

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Labour Bureaucracy and Labour Officialdom in Evo Morales's Bolivia

Labour Bureaucracy and Labour Officialdom in Evo Morales's Bolivia

Between Pachamama and Mother Earth: Gender, Political Ontology and the Rights of Nature in Contemporary Bolivia

State Governance and Micropractices of Power in the Process of Decolonizing the State in Bolivia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About