Planning and Natural Resources in Bolivia

Abstract

This article focuses on participation in the main planning documents produced in Bolivia in the fi rst decade of the 2000s: the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and the National Development Plan (PND). We analyze how these planning instruments have been able to capture popular participation through diverse mechanisms and how these practices fi t in the current mainstream participation discourse. Special attention is paid to natural resources because of the predominant role they have in the Bolivian economy and because of their substantial contribution to the state budget. The Bolivian experience refl ects an apparent paradox: While the process leading to the PRSP followed participatory guidelines and the PND did not, the resulting PRSP failed to include the most pressing demands of social movements, while the PND succeeded in including them. This case shows how the articulation of political processes escapes simplistic characterizations and how the application of "out of the textbook" participation may result in highly exclusionary outcomes. It also shows that the voice of social movements can take unexpected paths and have a profound infl uence on political events that go well beyond the possibility of standardized participatory processes.

Theorizing participatory governance in contexts of legal pluralism – a conceptual reconnaissance of fishing conflicts and their resolution

“…Before taking on this task, however, we must first answer a seemingly simple empirical question: What exactly is the subject of inquiry when we speak about 'nationalisation'? As we have demonstrated elsewhere (Pellegrini and Dasgupta, 2011;Arsel 2012;Arsel and Angel 2012;Pellegrini 2012;Radhuber 2012), the discourse of nationalisation (and its rhetorical handmaiden, 'sovereignty') has come with sweeping constitutional, legal, social and political changes. In this chapter we focus primarily on property rights, which lie at the heart of what nationalisation is usually understood to entail.…”

The company is here to do goodness to us: Imaginaries of development, whiteness, and patronage in Sierra Leone's agribusiness investment deals

“…This is particularly notable in Latin America, for example in the Bolivian state's view of the role of oil in addressing poverty and inequality (Pellegrini, 2018) or in Ecuador, where a 2009 mining law framed resource nationalism as a way that extractives could begin to 'repay' social debt of centuries of inequality (Riofrancos, 2020: 12). This imperative can be seen in other states as well and is often particularly evident in poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSP) and national development plans (Chimhowu et al, 2019;Pellegrini, 2012). This is clearly the case for Sierra Leone's most recent PRSP, which states: 'The Agenda for Prosperity Vision relies heavily on use of Sierra Leone's rich natural resources, both renewable and non-renewable, to be the initial driver for rapid growth' (Government of Sierra Leone, 2013: xiv).…”

“The squeaky wheel gets the grease”? The conflict imperative and the slow fight against environmental injustice in northern Peruvian Amazon

“…Although it is not the goal of this paper to provide an archaeology of the approach to natural resources and conflict in the mainstream policy circles, it is important to note that this "getting to yes" (Fisher and Ury 2011) approach to dialogue has been an essential component of the neoliberal orthodoxy and, for example, it is reflected in the emphasis given to consultation over extractive projects (Pellegrini 2012, Pellegrini and Ribera Arismendi 2012, Schilling-Vacaflor and Eichler 2017. The ultimate implication of this approach is to render conflicts apolitical by denying the potentially incompatibility of interests, e.g., based on different class positions, or incommensurability of value systems.…”