The contours of Gramscian theory in Bolivia: From government rhetoric to radical critique

McNelly, Angus

doi:10.1111/1467-8675.12286

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(24 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…108, 109) himself noted that, ‘since similar situations almost always arise in every historical development, one should see if it is not possible to draw from this some general principle of political science and art.’ It was he, therefore who sought to extend the concept in the first instance 2 . Turing to the issue of importing European concepts, I would first note that Gramsci has already become a major touchstone of debate between ‘intellectuals of statecraft’ in Bolivia and dissident intellectuals (Hesketh, 2019, p. 1475; McNelly, 2017). Secondly, Gramsci's concepts only gain meaning through their historical and geographical specificity of lived reality (Hesketh, 2017; Kipfer, 2013; Morton, 2013).…”

Section: Bolivia and The ‘Indian Question’mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It was he, therefore who sought to extend the concept in the first instance. 2 Turing to the issue of importing European concepts, I would first note that Gramsci has already become a major touchstone of debate between 'intellectuals of statecraft' in Bolivia and dissident intellectuals (Hesketh, 2019(Hesketh, , p. 1475McNelly, 2017). Secondly, Gramsci's concepts only gain meaning through their historical and geographical specificity of lived reality (Hesketh, 2017;Kipfer, 2013;Morton, 2013).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Between Pachakuti and Passive Revolution: The Search for Post‐colonial Sovereignty in Bolivia

Hesketh

2020

J Historical Sociology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

From the period 2000 to 2005, Bolivia experienced a profound political convulsion as social movements rose-up to contest the neoliberal model of development. This was most markedly inspired by contestation over the control of natural resources, namely water and gas. The period of mobilisation brought down two successive governments and propelled the MAS, led by Evo Morales, to power in 2006. This period also helped to revalorise indigenous culture and held out hope for a reimagining of power, politics and political economy. The transformation that would result from this uprising, effectively re-founded Bolivia as a "pluri-national state," recognising 36 separate national groups with their own languages and cultures. This was, furthermore, a process based on the convergence of national-popular and indigenous struggles. However, following his disputed election for a fourth successive term in office, Evo Morales and other key leaders of the MAS have gone into exile, while right-wing, revanchist social forces are increasingly prominent. How do we begin to make sense of this turn of events, which include the swirling combinations of reactionary capitalist interests but also left-indigenous critiques of development from marginalised sectors? In this article, I argue that we need to situate Bolivia's indigenous social movements in the struggle between Pachakuti (an Andean term referring to the desire to turn the world upside down and forge a new time and space) and passive revolution (a state-led process of modernisation that seeks to expand capitalist social relations whilst incorporating limited demands from below, ultimately diffusing their radical potential). 1 | INTRODUCTION From the period 2000-2005, Bolivia experienced a profound political convulsion as social movements rose-up to contest the neoliberal model of dispossession. This was most markedly inspired by contestation over the control of natural resources, namely water and gas (Gutiérrez Aguilar, 2008; Webber, 2012a). This period of mobilisation *Chris Hesketh is a Senior Lecturer in International Political Economy in the School of Social Sciences at Oxford Brookes University. † I would like to thank Adam Morton as well as three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. Any errors remain my own. I also gratefully acknowledge the support of the Independent Social Research Foundation for supporting this research through a Political Economy Fellowship.

show abstract

Section: Bolivia and The ‘Indian Question’mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Between Pachakuti and Passive Revolution: The Search for Post‐colonial Sovereignty in Bolivia

Hesketh

2020

J Historical Sociology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Although the work of García Linera is now overdetermined by his political function as vice‐president (see Baker ; McNelly, ; Webber, ), his early work, especially on the Bolivian labour movement (republished in 2014), represented vital interventions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Labour Bureaucracy and Labour Officialdom in Evo Morales's Bolivia

McNelly¹

2018

Development and Change

Self Cite

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

The ‘agropopulist shift’ toward authoritarianism: the conflict between the MAS government and coca growers from the Bolivian Yungas

Ortiz Gallego

2024

The Journal of Peasant Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The contours of Gramscian theory in Bolivia: From government rhetoric to radical critique

Cited by 4 publications

References 18 publications

Between Pachakuti and Passive Revolution: The Search for Post‐colonial Sovereignty in Bolivia

Between Pachakuti and Passive Revolution: The Search for Post‐colonial Sovereignty in Bolivia

Labour Bureaucracy and Labour Officialdom in Evo Morales's Bolivia

The ‘agropopulist shift’ toward authoritarianism: the conflict between the MAS government and coca growers from the Bolivian Yungas

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About