Entre el extractivismo y el Vivir Bien: experiencias y desafíos desde Bolivia.

Entre el extractivismo y el Vivir Bien: experiencias y desafíos desde Bolivia.

Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela are notable in the world for their proposal of a new development paradigm that intends to recover and strengthen grassroots government and the pluralist principals of political organization: Vivir Bien, Buen Vivir and socialism of the 21st Century. Several questions arise from the experience of progressive governments in Latin America beginning in the 2000s. Those governments that succeeded in channeling a strong political energy from society, predisposed to alternative development models, none- theless departed in practice from that commitment: they adopted controversial changes and continued the existing economic policy, provoking social tensions and policy contradictions. The objective of this article is to reconstruct the Bolivian experience after ten years of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) government. To that end, it analyzes the social movements that made possible Evo Morales’ rise to the Presidency in 2006. It also discusses the results of the development model, policy changes and the fragmentation of social movements. The comparison of the Bolivian experience with other progressive governments allows for the identification of the key contradictions and to map out the challenges for other progressive political projects in the region.