High Anxiety in the Andes: Bolivia and the Viability of Democracy

Whitehead, Laurence

doi:10.1353/jod.2001.0041

Cited by 64 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…Besides the crisis brought about by the imposition of neoliberal economic policies, the return to democracy in the 1980s brought with it a system of representative democracy that soon degenerated into what Bolivians call a "partidocracy," in which political institutions mired in corruption failed to represent the views and demands of the electorate (Exeni, 2007;Whitehead, 2001). At this point, civil society stepped in to fill the void left by a delegitimized formal political system.…”

Section: Alternatives At the Margins: Other Worlds Other Actors Other Forms Of Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Suma qamañain Bolivia

Artaraz¹,

Calestani²

2014

Latin American Perspectives

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In recent decades there has been increasing interest in academic, governmental, and nongovernmental circles worldwide in developing universal definitions of well-being. Governments have progressively shifted their policies on this concept and are currently engaged in improving the well-being of their populations. Bolivia’s concept of suma qamaña (living well together) is broader than “well-being,” emphasizing the importance of harmonious relations between nature and human beings and providing an important link to sustainability that current conceptions of well-being fail to make. Exploring the concept is highly relevant at this historical moment because the Morales government is engaged in a wide-ranging process of social transformation to implement it. Its translation into public policy and the adoption of a development model consistent with it have proved problematic. While the introduction of the concept into the National Development Plan, the new constitution, and the Law of Mother Earth has addressed the need to move from individualized understandings of well-being to collective ones, the government has not overcome the conflict between growth-driven approaches and sustainability that is inherent in all its legislation. Moreover, understandings of the concept are constantly being negotiated and transformed, calling for an understanding of it that is rooted in people’s practices and beliefs rather than in theoretical constructions. En las últimas décadas ha habido un creciente interés en los círculos académicos, gubernamentales y no gubernamentales de todo el mundo en el desarrollo de las definiciones universales de bienestar. Los gobiernos han cambiado progresivamente sus políticas en este concepto y se dedican actualmente a la mejora del bienestar de sus poblaciones. Concepto de suma qamaña (vivir bien) de Bolivia es más amplio que el “bienestar,” enfatizando la importancia de las relaciones armoniosas entre la naturaleza y los seres humanos y proporcionando un vínculo importante con la sostenibilidad que las concepciones actuales de bienestar no pueden hacer. Explorar el concepto es muy relevante en este momento histórico, porque el gobierno de Morales está involucrado en un amplio proceso de transformación social para implementarla. Su traslación en las políticas públicas y la adopción de un modelo de desarrollo coherente con ella han demostrado ser problemático. Si bien la introducción de este concepto en el Plan Nacional de Desarrollo, la nueva Constitución, y la Ley de la Madre Tierra ha abordado la necesidad de pasar de entendimientos individuales de bienestar a los colectivos, el gobierno no ha superado el conflicto entre los enfoques impulsados por crecimiento y la sostenibilidad que es inherente a toda su legislación. Por otra parte, las comprensiones del concepto están siendo constantemente negociados y transformados, reclamando una comprensión que está enraizada en las prácticas y creencias de las personas y no en las construcciones teóricas.

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Section: Alternatives At the Margins: Other Worlds Other Actors Other Forms Of Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Suma qamañain Bolivia

Artaraz¹,

Calestani²

2014

Latin American Perspectives

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“…Leading scholars said much the same thing about the stabilizing effects of promiscuous powersharing after a decade of its practice in Bolivia as well. By the early 1990s, Bolivia’s collusive approach had seemingly worked so well that the country’s democratic consolidation was widely being declared a success (Malloy, 1991; Mayorga, 1997; Whitehead, 2001). Yet governing coalitions remained so far removed from their constituents that the system resembled “democracy on stilts” (Centellas, 2007).…”

Section: The Dynamics Of Promiscuous Powersharing: Self-reinforcing Versus Self-undermining Tendenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coping by Colluding

Slater

Simmons

2012

Comparative Political Studies

100

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Democracy forces political elites to compete for power in elections, but it also often presses them to share power after the electoral dust has settled. At times these powersharing arrangements prove so encompassing as to make a mockery of putative partisan differences, and even to wipe out political opposition entirely by bringing every significant party into a “party cartel.” Such promiscuous powersharing arrangements undermine representation by loosening parties’ commitments to their core constituents, and threaten accountability by limiting voters’ capacity to remove parties from power via the ballot box. In the otherwise deeply disparate cases of Indonesia and Bolivia, the origins of promiscuous powersharing can be traced to similar periods of high political uncertainty surrounding crisis-wracked transitions to democracy. Party elites coped with the uncertainties of transition and crisis by sharing executive power across the country’s most salient political cleavages. These arrangements forged an elitist equilibrium grounded in informal norms and networks, allowing collusive democracy to outlast the uncertain crisis conditions in which it was forged. Yet they have ultimately proven self-undermining by triggering distinctive popular backlashes, returning both countries to the political uncertainty that promiscuous powersharing was initially intended to alleviate.

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“…El movimiento indígena ecuatoriano, por su parte, consiguió su incorporación a un sistema político que, aunque formalmente garantizaba la igualdad política de toda la población, mantuvo fuertes características de exclusión que, en particular, afectaron a la población indígena (Wolff 2011). Como los movimientos sociales en Bolivia, forzaron la apertura -y finalmente el colapso-de una "democracia pactada" que basó su estabilidad y gobernabilidad, entre otras cosas, en un juego de compromisos intra-élites en el cual tres partidos dominantes gobernaron en alianzas cambiantes (Whitehead 2001).…”

Section: Experiencias Logros Y Condiciones: Cuatro Observacionesunclassified

Movimientos sociales y la lucha por la democratización de la democracia: experiencias recientes en América del Sur

Wolff¹

2012

Democracia Y Reconfiguraciones Contemporáneas Del Derecho en América Latina

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High Anxiety in the Andes: Bolivia and the Viability of Democracy

Cited by 64 publications

References 0 publications

Suma qamañain Bolivia

Suma qamañain Bolivia

Coping by Colluding

Movimientos sociales y la lucha por la democratización de la democracia: experiencias recientes en América del Sur

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