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Social movements, policy, and conflict in post-neoliberal latin america: Bolivia in the time of evo morales

Voices of Globalization

ISBN: 978-1-78190-545-6, eISBN: 978-1-78190-546-3

Publication date: 15 October 2013

Abstract

The resurgence of left governments in Latin America raised expectations for the reincorporation of popular sectors broadly writ into the political arena from which they largely had been excluded by governments committed to Washington Consensus policies. This was particularly true in cases where mobilization by broad-based, heterogeneous social movement coalitions set the stage for their election. In some cases highly contentious cycles of mass mobilization in the context of economic crisis and party system collapse opened opportunities for outsider left candidates and their new political movements and parties to sweep into office. This was the case of Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and, partially, Argentina. In other cases institutional continuity prevailed but mass discontent with low average growth, increasing poverty and inequality, and declining opportunities drove the electorate to vote for more established left parties. Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile are the emblematic cases. In all cases, to a greater or lesser degree, there was an assumption of a closer alignment between left governments and social movements than before. This chapter tests such assumption in the case of Bolivia because it exhibited exceptionally favorable conditions for a close alignment of social movements and the government of Evo Morales, the country’s first president of indigenous origin.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgment

I am grateful to Moira Zuazo and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Bolivia, for their support of this research. I would also like to thank the many Bolivian colleagues whose insights enriched this article, including Roxana Liendo, Fernando Colque, and Oscar Vega. All errors are, of course, my responsibility.

Citation

Silva, E. (2013), "Social movements, policy, and conflict in post-neoliberal latin america: Bolivia in the time of evo morales", Voices of Globalization (Research in Political Sociology, Vol. 21), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 51-76. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0895-9935(2013)0000021005

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2013 Emerald Group Publishing Limited