A construção do horizonte plurinacional: liberalismo, indianismo e nacional-popular na formação do Estado boliviano

Abstract

The present thesis seeks to understand and explain the formation of the Plurinational State of Bolivia from the legacy of symbols, procedures and models of legitimacy left throughout its history and that can be grouped in three great political matrices: Constitutional- Liberalism, Communitarian-Indianism and National-popular. Thus, the aim is to analyze how the legacy of these three matrices influence - mainly through the historical evolution of their political horizons and the memory of the uncompleted agendas and promises towards the State and the nation in Bolivia - the current experiment inaugurated in 2009 with the enactment of the current Constitution. The underlying hypothesis is that the plurinational experiment, in its attempt to solve the strong State legitimacy crisis brought about by the critical juncture of the years 2000-2005, feeds itself from these matrices' agendas - be it intentionally and deliberately as in the case of Indianism and National-popular or reluctantly as in the case of Liberalism - in order to reconcile the State with its motley social formation. In order to assess it, a bibliographical study was conducted and complemented with a sixmonths fieldwork in Bolivia in order to trace the political evolution of the three traditions in their constitutive moments, agendas and horizons and contrast them with the institutional characteristics assumed by the new Plurinational State and the political practice of contemporary Bolivian actors. Thus, it was possible to notice indeed how persistent they are in the country's ongoing re-foundational experiment and current political practice through an heterogeneous and with different intensities mix of the agendas and practices of the three matrices, represented especially through the attachment to democracy both as a value and a procedure; an ethno-cultural recognition brought inside the State itself with the potential incorporation of communitarian institutional forms and the preservation of autonomous deliberative spaces; and the search for a more direct political participation by the people and the emphasis on popular sovereignty over the country's natural resources and an increased economic intervention by the State.