The Indigenous in Plurinational Bolivia: Perceptions of Indigenous People in Bolivia Before & During the Morales Government

Indigenous people in Bolivia have historically been excluded from the social and political life of their country, where socioeconomic differences are highly correlated with ethnic identities. However, after a serious political crisis, in 2005 an indigenous leader was elected President in an unprecedented election, and the country has since faced aggressive social and political transformations. Using survey data that ranges from 1998 to 2010, this paper shows some relevant changes in the perceptions and attitudes of indigenous people towards the democratic regime, its political institutions, and other citizens. The trends shown suggest that the average relationship of indigenous citizens with the estate and its institutions has improved both in relative and in absolute terms. However, levels of political tolerance among indigenous Bolivians do not seem to have increased at the same rate as those of non-indigenous Bolivians.

Análise das interpretações do governo Evo Morales: o legado histórico e o poder nacional-indígena

This work aims to analyze the interpretations about Evo Morales' government in Bolivia. For such, it proposes a theoretical reclaim of Marxism in Latin America, as well as of Bolivian political history since the 1952 Revolution, going through the crisis in Pacted Democracy intensified in the five-year conjuncture of struggles started in 2000 up to the election and reelection of Morales. It departs from an empirical prior conjecture taken from a qualitative analysis and a broad literature review to analyze the different interpretations of the Bolivian political process from Marxist theoretical matrices. After this historical recovery and this reading of contemporary Bolivia, it concludes with a consideration about the formation of a possible new block of power in the country, with the retaking of nationalism and Indianism as revolutionary reasons

Estado e embates socioterritoriais na Bolívia do século XXI

Recent results of presidential elections in Latin America suggest a turn to the left in various countries. In Bolivia, such a movement includes the victory of an Aymara Indian who is also a leader of coca farmers. The article proposes an interpretation of this event, describes and discusses the main actions of the new government, stressing the reactions they provoked, and explores the class, ethnic and territorial dimensions of the resulting conflicts. The regional aspects of the fights, seen in connection with the country's historical regionalism, are highlighted and their basic conditions are investigated.

Demokratie und Dekolonisierung in Bolivien

Ausgehend von den fortdauernden Ausschlüssen und strukturellen Benachteiligungen der indigenen Bevölkerung Lateinamerikas kritisiert die vorliegende Arbeit die begrenzten Möglichkeiten gesellschaftlicher Teilhabe innerhalb von liberalen Wahldemokratien. Neben materiellen Ungleichheiten stehen immaterielle Formen der Ungleichheit, wie kulturelle und symbolische Barrieren politischer sowie sozialer Teilhabe im Fokus der Analyse. Das Forschungs- und Erkenntnisinteresse zielt darauf, Demokratie nicht länger nur anhand liberal-repräsentativer Normen und Verfahren zu erfassen und zu werten. Es geht um die Reflexion anderer demokratischer Praxen, wie indigener und indigen-gewerkschaftlicher Formen lokaler Selbstregierung in Bolivien. Denn im bolivianischen Transformationsprozess mündete die Kritik der liberal-repräsentativen Demokratie in einer doppelten Forderung: Zum einen wird die Demokratisierung der liberalen Demokratie und zum anderen ihre Dekolonisierung gefordert. Die Dekolonisierung und Institutionalisierung unterschiedlicher Praxen und Vorstellungen wird empirisch am Beispiel des indigenen Autonomieprozesses untersucht. Auf nationaler Ebene werden die Demokratisierungsfortschritte u. a. anhand von Wahlrecht, der Entwicklung der Partizipation und Repräsentation bilanziert und die materielle Dimension von Teilhabe auf Grundlage der sozial- und wirtschaftspolitischen Reformen der Regierung Morales geprüft.

Ordenamiento territorial, recursos naturales y Asamblea Constituyente en Bolivia: ¿hacia un Estado Plurinacional? (Otros Temas)

El planeamiento del autor hace referencia a como el ordenamiento territorial y el control –estatal, comunal o privado– de los recursos estratégicos del país serán el tema central de debate en la Asamblea Constituyente de Bolivia. Garcés pasa revista a las propuestas de las organizaciones y del gobierno boliviano y finaliza señalando que será un desafío para la Asamblea y para el gobierno de Morales tomar en cuenta los planteamientos de las organizaciones indígenas y campesinas del país.

Bolivia's Uncertain Future

Edited by former LACC Director, Eduardo Gamarra, this issue asked prominent Bolivian journalists and social scientists to critically analyze the first year and a half of Evo Morales’ government. Popularly elected in December 2005, Morales promised to conduct a revolution in democracy. In this collection of essays, the objective is to show a different view than the image of Morales as the Bolivian Nelson Mandela who freed his indigenous brethren from repression. The essays gathered here tell the story about how Bolivia’s first indigenous president has attempted to change Bolivia. These essays show that Morales’ first 18 months in office have been filled with promise, controversy, and conflict.

Crise de hegemonia e emergência de novos atores na Bolívia: o governo de Evo Morales

The presidency of Evo Morales, indigenous leader and who heads the party Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), opens a series of transformations in several dimensions. The changes in socio-economic and political power express the critic of long-term coloniality relations between a dominant white elite and an indigenous subordinate majority that deepens after national independence. Following this perspective, present in sectors of support to the government, the strategy of the MAS cannot follow the tradition of social revolutions that operated structural breaks in the mode of production and the state organization, but points to a new decolonizing revolution, cultural and political, articulating an indigenism of broad nature, flexible and open to popular social movements. This view is facing critics in sectors of the left that identify the renewal of capitalist modernization process initiated in 1952 under the leadership of the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR), extending citizenship and democratizing access to the state for recognition of Indians as such. From this perspective, the transformations proposed by MAS tend to favor a system restoration by diversifying its economic and social base. From the contrast provided by these two lines of interpretation, we intend to analyze the structural possibilities of the strategy of the government of Evo Morales, taking as historical reference the transformations wrought by the nationalist revolution of 1952 and the neoliberal reforms initiated in 1980.

An E-government Interoperability Platform Supporting Personal Data Protection Regulations

Public agencies are increasingly required to collaborate with each other in order to provide high-quality e-government services. This collaboration is usually based on the service-oriented approach and supported by interoperability platforms. Such platforms are specialized middleware-based infrastructures enabling the provision, discovery and invocation of interoperable software services. In turn, given that personal data handled by governments are often very sensitive, most governments have developed some sort of legislation focusing on data protection. This paper proposes solutions for monitoring and enforcing data protection laws within an E-government Interoperability Platform. In particular, the proposal addresses requirements posed by the Uruguayan Data Protection Law and the Uruguayan E-government Platform, although it can also be applied in similar scenarios. The solutions are based on well-known integration mechanisms (e.g. Enterprise Service Bus) as well as recognized security standards (e.g. eXtensible Access Control Markup Language) and were completely prototyped leveraging the SwitchYard ESB product.

ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT POLICIES IN BRAZIL: CONTEXT, ICT MANAGEMENT AND OUTCOMES

The State Reform processes combined with the emergence and use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) originated electronic government policies and initiatives in Brazil. This paper dwells on Brazilian e-government by investigating the institutional design it assumed in the state's public sphere, and how it contributed to outcomes related to e-gov possibilities. The analyses were carried out under an interpretativist perspective by making use of Institutional Theory. From the analyses of interviews with relevant actors in the public sphere, such as state secretaries and presidents of public ICT companies, conclusions point towards low institutionalization of e-gov policies. The institutional design of Brazilian e-gov limits the use of ICT to provide integrated public services, to amplify participation and transparency, and to improve public policies management.

Learning about knowledge management for improving environmental impact assessment in a government agency: The Western Australian experience

How does knowledge management (KM) by a government agency responsible for environmental impact assessment (EIA) potentially contribute to better environmental assessment and management practice? Staff members at government agencies in charge of the EIA process are knowledge workers who perform judgement-oriented tasks highly reliant on individual expertise, but also grounded on the agency`s knowledge accumulated over the years. Part of an agency`s knowledge can be codified and stored in an organizational memory, but is subject to decay or loss if not properly managed. The EIA agency operating in Western Australia was used as a case study. Its KM initiatives were reviewed, knowledge repositories were identified and staff surveyed to gauge the utilisation and effectiveness of such repositories in enabling them to perform EIA tasks. Key elements of KM are the preparation of substantive guidance and spatial information management. It was found that treatment of cumulative impacts on the environment is very limited and information derived from project follow-up is not properly captured and stored, thus not used to create new knowledge and to improve practice and effectiveness. Other opportunities for improving organizational learning include the use of after-action reviews. The learning about knowledge management in EIA practice gained from Western Australian experience should be of value to agencies worldwide seeking to understand where best to direct their resources for their own knowledge repositories and environmental management practice. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.