Bolivia’s Constitutional Breakdown

Issue Date October 2008
Volume 19
Issue 4
Page Numbers 110-124
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The attempt to revolutionize Bolivia that began with the election of Evo Morales in 2005 has led to the breakdown of constitutional democracy and the polarization of the country between the poorer, indigenous western highlands and the (slightly) more prosperous, more heavily mestizo, and more market-friendly eastern lowlands (what Bolivians call the media luna or “half-moon”). The trajectory of relative stability and economic growth followed from the 1980s onward now threatens to devolve into constitutional stalemate at best and violent civil conflict at worst.

About the Author

Fabrice Lehoucq is professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and the author of Political Instability and Its Legacies: Regime Trajectories in Latin America (forthcoming).

View all work by Fabrice Lehoucq