Unresolved Tensions

by Crabtree, John; Whitehead, Laurence

• ISBN13: 9780822960065
• ISBN10: 0822960060
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-09-28
• Publisher: Univ of Pittsburgh Pr

Summary

The landslide election of Evo Morales in December 2005 pointed toward a process of accelerated change in Bolivia, forging a path away from globalization and the neoliberal paradigm in favor of greater national control and state intervention. This in turn shifted the power relations of Bolivia's internal politics-beginning with greater inclusion of the indigenous population-and altered the nation's foreign relations.Unresolved Tensionsengages this realignment from a variety of analytical perspectives, using the Morales election as a lens through which to reassess Bolivia's contemporary political reality and its relation to a set of deeper historical issues. This volume brings together an expert group of commentators and participants from within the Bolivian political arena to offer diverse perspectives and competing views on issues of ethnicity, regionalism, state-society relations, constitutional reform, economic development, and globalization. In this way, the contributors seek to reassess Bolivia's past, present, and future, consider the ways in which the nation's historical developments flow from these deeper currents, and assess the opportunities and challenges that arise within the new political context.

Author Biography

John Crabtree is a research associate at the Centre for Latin American Studies, University of Oxford. He is the author of Peru under Garcia: An Opportunity Lost; The Great Tin Crisis; and Making Institutions Work in Peru: Democracy, Development, and Inequality since 1980.  Crabtree is the editor or coeditor of several other works, including Towards Democratic Viability: The Bolivian Experience (with Laurence Whitehead). Laurence Whitehead is an Official Fellow in Politics at Nuffield College, Oxford University. Whitehead is the author or editor of numerous books, including most recently: Latin America: A New Interpretation; Democratization: Theory Interpretation; and Emerging Market Democracies: East Asia/Latin America.

Table of Contents

List of Figures, Maps, and Tables	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction: A Story of Unresolved Tensions	p. 1
On Ethnicities	p. 9
The "Long Memory" of Ethnicity in Bolivia and Some Temporary Oscillations	p. 13
Let the Mestizos Stand Up and Be Counted	p. 35
Oversimplifying Identities: The Debate over What Is Indigena and What Is Mestizo	p. 51
On Regionalism	p. 61
Regionalism Revisited	p. 65
Oppressed or Privileged Regions? Some Historical Reflections on the Use of State Resources	p. 83
On State-Society Relations	p. 105
State-Society Relations in Bolivia: The Strength of Weakness	p. 109
The Weakness of Excess: The Bolivian State in an Unbounded Democracy	p. 125
On Constitutionalism	p. 141
The Development of Constituent Power in Bolivia	p. 145
Constitution and Constitutional Reform in Bolivia	p. 160
On Strategies of Economic Development	p. 173
Gas and Its Importance to the Bolivian Economy	p. 177
Beyond Gas: Between the Narrow-Based and Broad-Based Economy	p. 194
On Bolivia and Globalization	p. 213
Bolivia in a Global Setting: Economic Ties	p. 217
The Perverse Effects of Globalization in Bolivia	p. 238
Conclusion: Bolivia's Latest "Refoundation"	p. 255
Notes	p. 271
Bibliography	p. 287
List of Contributors	p. 299
Index	p. 303
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