• DOI:10.1080/17442222.2015.1034442
• Corpus ID: 5722035

New Institutions of Indigenous Self-Governance in Bolivia: Between Autonomy and Self-Discipline

@article{Tockman2015NewIO,
  title={New Institutions of Indigenous Self-Governance in Bolivia: Between Autonomy and Self-Discipline},
  author={Jason Tockman and John I. Cameron and Wilfredo Plata},
  journal={Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies},
  year={2015},
  volume={10},
  pages={37 - 59}
}

• J. Tockman, J. Cameron, Wilfredo Plata
• Published 2 January 2015
• Political Science
• Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies

This article analyzes the novel legal and policy framework for indigenous autonomy in Bolivia since the approval of the 2009 Constitution, with a focus on the specific contents of the country’s first five approved statutes of indigenous autonomy. The statutes not only appear to internalize Bolivia’s restrictive framework for indigenous autonomy, but also reveal internal tensions between liberal principles and the supposed norms of indigenous self-governance, thereby challenging common assumptions of indigenous attitudes toward autonomy and highlighting the practical objectives of many local actors. Moreover, they indicate an acceptance by many local actors of the national redistributive-developmentalist economic program pursued by the Morales Government. While acknowledging important variations among the statutes, we observe a distinctively Bolivian hybrid model of indigenous autonomy, and posit that within that model, the approved statutes can be located on a continuum between poles of more communitarian and more municipal. The article analyzes the statutes’ provisions for territorial control and prior informed consultation and consent in the context of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and explores how indigenous autonomy in Bolivia contributes to broader debates about post-liberalism and post-neoliberalism in Latin America.