I know I’ve not posted much about Bolivia (or really, anything) in some time. And though much has happened (e.g. border disputes between provinces in Tarija), I’ve been too focused on catching up w/ my coursework. But I wanted to highlight this recent piece in Tiempo Político1 by Herber Müller: “La necesidad de construir un verdadero pacto social [The need to build a new social pact].”
The piece relates nicely to my work on Bolivia’s “national imaginary” problem—particularly in my paper on the constituent assembly as a (potential) means to forging a new “social contract” for Bolivia (see earlier post). So, yes, I agree w/ the thrust of Müller’s argument; if you read Spanish, it’s worth a look.
The problems w/ constituent assemblies (particularly in Latin America), of course, are two-fold. On the one hand, presidents tend to rewrite constitutions to suit their purposes, which means that the process by which they’re drafted aren’t entirely democratic—regardless of one’s perspectives on the policies pursued. That Augusto Pinochet and Juan Velasco Alvarado pursued different economic policies & aligned themselves w/ different geopolitical powers (Pinochet was a US ally; Velasco Alvarado was a Soviet ally) has little impact on the fact that both regimes were authoritarian & that both rewrote their country’s constitution to their own liking. As types of regimes, both were the same. Bolivia’s legacy similarly can look to the “socialist” Juan José Torres & the “right-wing” Hugo Banzer—or even the more “ambiguous” German Busch.
On the other hand (or the flip side of the same hand), because such presidents (de facto or otherwise) have tended to rewrite constitutions w/ less-than-democratic means, the resulting documents have not often fared well in history. A document that’s imposed won’t last beyond the political ability to enforce it. Thus, Bolivia’s history of constitutions is a long one: from my count, at least 22 constitutions since 1826—and three “new” constitutions since democratization (1982) alone. The story in most Latin American countries is equally unimpressive.
So. The trick isn’t for Morales to impose a new constitution that he—or his many domestic & international supporters might want—but rather for the Assembly to come together into some sort of consensus. This way, even after Morales, the constitution won’t be simply discarded—as is the Latin American tradition.
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1 Tiempo Político is a weekly supplement published by La Razón (La Paz) & edited by Carlos Toranzo, director of Instituto Latinoamericano de Investigaciones Sociales (ILDIS) in Bolivia. ILDIS is supported by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), a foundation tied to Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD).
