Bolivian mas-ipsp, halfway between a social movement and a political party

The article reports a research about the organizational and political nature of “Movimiento al Socialismo – Instrumento Político por la Soberanía de los Pueblos (MAS-IPSP)” in Bolivia. It begins the study with a description of the creational conditions of the MA-IPSP, in the hope of distinguishing in it the operation of a political party in the long term. Then the article examines the party’s orientation as a political instrument and finally analyzes the successes and turns of Evo Morales’ victory inside the organization.El artículo realiza una investigación acerca de la naturaleza organizacional y política del Movimiento al Socialismo – Instrumento Político por la Soberanía de los Pueblos (MAS-IPSP) en Bolivia. Inicia el estudio con una descripción de las condiciones de creación del MAS-IPSP, con el objetivo de distinguir en ello el funcionamiento de un partido político a largo plazo. Luego examina su orientación como instrumento político y finalmente analiza los éxitos y giros del triunfo de Evo Morales dentro de la organización

L’indianisme est-il de gauche ?

Au début de l’année 2007, Jean-Loup Amselle est venu enquêter en Bolivie sur les modalités de la critique postcoloniale et sur les lieux de production intellectuelle alternative. Sa recherche a permis d’expliciter un certain malaise ressenti alors face au monde académique bolivien : l’utilisation systématique de notions faisant office de mot d’ordre, comme « décolonisation de l’Etat et de la société », la réinvention d’une communauté pré-hispanique harmonieuse et proche de la nature, autant d..

Coloquio internacional: Reformas del Estado. Poderes, territorios, sociedades

El coloquio «Reformas del Estado. Poderes, territorios, sociedades» se llevó a cabo en la ciudad de La Paz del 16 al 19 de junio de 2009. Fue organizado por el IFEA, la Cooperación Regional Francesa, la Embajada de Francia en Bolivia, el Observatorio político de América Latina y del Caribe/Ciencias políticas de París, en colaboración con instituciones bolivianas como el PIEB (Programa de Investigación Estratégica en Bolivia), el Ildis, el Musef (Museo de Etnografía y de Folklore), y la Embaja..

Indigenous Peasant ‘Otherness’: Rural Identities and Political Processes in Bolivia

Since Morales's election, rural movements have become the new protagonists of Bolivian politics. Previous analyses have emphasised their active role in shaping national politics, often focusing on those organisations as a compact block. However, their relationship is marked by both cooperation and fragmentation. This article provides a narrative of Bolivian socio-political history over the last 60 years, establishing four main phases of identitarian articulations/disarticulations. It demonstrates the high degree of interdependence and fluidity of ethnic and class identities, as well as their interconnections with the broader socio-political context and the national legal and institutional changes

The 'indigenous native peasant' trinity: imagining a plurinational community in Evo Morales's Bolivia

Over the last two decades Latin America has been a laboratory for the implementation of new models of state and citizenship. In Bolivia the (neo)liberal multicultural paradigm dominant in the 1990s has recently been replaced by a plurinational paradigm, which implies a deepening of the decentralization process and the strengthening of rights for traditionally marginalized social sectors. This paper describes the process of construction of a plurinational ‘imagined community’ and, in particular, of one of its core narratives: The ‘indigenous native peasant’. I argue that the negotiation of this collective identity and its inclusion as one of the core ideas in the new constitution is the result of a contingent strategy in response to a highly conflictive scenario, which has not been, however, able to trigger a change in the way people identify themselves. Yet in recent years, social movements’ identities have been shaped by centrifugal forces. These forces should be understood as the result of a process of collective actors’ adaptation to institutional and regulatory reforms and contribute to explaining the increase of new intrasocietal conflicts linked to the redefinition of citizenship and territorial boundaries

States Of Discontent

Latin America’s recent inclusionary turn centers on changing relationships between the popular sectors and the state. Yet the new inclusion unfolds in a region in which most states are weak and prone to severe pathologies, such as corruption, inefficiency, and particularism. The first part of the chapter outlines an argument, developed at more length elsewhere, regarding how “state crises” helped drive the consolidation of three distinct party system trajectories among the eight South American countries where the Left would eventually win power. The second part of the chapter argues that these trajectories differed in three ways that likely conditioned how the concomitant inclusionary Left turn unfolded in each case: the institutionalization of left-wing parties, the occurrence of state transformation via constitutional reform, and the level of state capacity. The discussion helps highlight the central role of the state and its pathologies in both driving alternative paths of political development and in conditioning the politics of inclusion. By putting the emphasis on the state and its pathologies, we can better consider not just the sources of sociopolitical exclusion but also the limits of sociopolitical inclusion

Outcomes from elective colorectal cancer surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

This study aimed to describe the change in surgical practice and the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on mortality after surgical resection of colorectal cancer during the initial phases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Un parti paysan dans la ville en Bolivie : le Mouvement vers le socialisme (MAS) à La Paz (2005-2010)

A peasant party in a Bolivian city : The Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) in La Paz (2005-2010) The takeover of the Bolivian presidency by the peasant trade-unionist Evo Morales and his party, the Movement towards Socialism (MAS), in 2005 not only marked the return of the left into the national political arena, but illustrates as well the raise, begun in the mid 90s, of the peasantry as an autonomous protagonist of Bolivian politics, in a context of growing urbanisation. This article focuses on the political and social conditions prior to the electoral triumph of MAS in a supposedly hostile environment : the cities. On the basis of an ethnographic research carried out within the working-class districts of La Paz, this work aims to show how a particular partisan configuration that favours its rural membership acts as a constraint for the party’s implantation in urban areas. Nevertheless, this fact does not turn into an obstacle, mainly due to the control that MAS holds on public jobs, which plays a key role in maintaining internal discipline in the cities.La conquête de la présidence de la République, en 2005, par le syndicaliste paysan Evo Morales et son parti, le Mouvement vers le socialisme (MAS), n’a pas seulement incarné le retour au premier plan de la gauche sur la scène politique bolivienne. Cette victoire illustre également l’émergence, dès le milieu des années 1990, de la paysannerie comme un protagoniste autonome de la vie politique nationale, et ce dans un contexte d’urbanisation croissante de la société. Cet article analyse les conditions politiques et sociales antérieures au succès d’un tel parti dans un environnement qui lui est a priori hostile : les centres urbains. A partir d’une enquête ethnographique réalisée dans les quartiers populaires de La Paz, il s’agira de montrer comment une configuration partisane particulière, favorisant l’appartenance au monde rural, pèse comme une contrainte sur l’implantation du parti dans les villes. Celle-ci ne s’érige toutefois pas en obstacle, tant le monopole détenu par le MAS sur les emplois publics joue un rôle fondamental dans le maintien d’une discipline interne en milieu urbain.Do Alto Hervé. Un parti paysan dans la ville en Bolivie : le Mouvement vers le socialisme (MAS) à La Paz (2005-2010). In: Revue d’études en Agriculture et Environnement, Vol. 92, N°4, 2011. Le monde rural en politique. Le cas des protestations paysannes en Bolivie. pp. 389-416