Bolivia

Gender, ethnicity and political inclusion in new municipal structures

Fifteen years after the implementation of an innovative decentralization process praised around the world, most of Bolivia’s 300 municipalities – which are largely rural – now have some form of participatory government. What’s more, new players, both individual and collective, have made inroads into municipal politics, including women, smallholder farmers and indigenous people.

Researchers explored the tensions and paradoxes of inclusion and exclusion within this participatory process, consolidating the findings of their individual work. To that end, they analyzed the emergence of new autonomous municipalities. Ultimately, they sought to identify how the modification of municipal structures led to greater inclusion over the past 15 years without creating new exclusions.

Researchers organized scientific seminars at Université Laval, UQAM and Centro de Estudios Superiores Universitarios at the Universidad Mayor San Simón to present their findings. In addition to taking part in other symposiums and conferences, six members of the team contributed to articles for a special issue of CESU’s Decursos journal in 2011. They expect to share their work again at the World Congress of the Latin American Studies Association in 2012.