Unresolved Tensions
Bolivia Past and Present
Published on 20. September 2008
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-8229-4355-6 (ISBN)
Description
The landslide election of Evo Morales in December 2005 pointed toward a process of accelerated change in Bolivia, forging a path away from globalization and the neoliberal paradigm in favor of greater national control and state intervention. This in turn shifted the power relations of Bolivia's internal politics-beginning with greater inclusion of the indigenous population-and altered the nation's foreign relations. Unresolved Tensions engages this realignment from a variety of analytical perspectives, using the Morales election as a lens through which to reassess Bolivia's contemporary political reality and its relation to a set of deeper historical issues.
This volume brings together an expert group of commentators and participants from within the Bolivian political arena to offer diverse perspectives and competing views on issues of ethnicity, regionalism, state-society relations, constitutional reform, economic development, and globalization. In this way, the contributors seek to reassess Bolivia's past, present, and future, consider the ways in which the nation's historical developments flow from these deeper currents, and assess the opportunities and challenges that arise within the new political context.
This volume brings together an expert group of commentators and participants from within the Bolivian political arena to offer diverse perspectives and competing views on issues of ethnicity, regionalism, state-society relations, constitutional reform, economic development, and globalization. In this way, the contributors seek to reassess Bolivia's past, present, and future, consider the ways in which the nation's historical developments flow from these deeper currents, and assess the opportunities and challenges that arise within the new political context.
Reviews / Votes
[This] book will remain essential reading for some time to come . . . Crabtree's introduction to the volume and Whitehead's comparative and historical conclusions are masterful, and offer insights into how scholarship on Bolivian politics is ideologically framed. * <i>Journal of Latin American Studies</i> * Unresolved Tensions is a very important book about Bolivia's modern history. With insight and clarity, it explores the major themes that are at the center of conflicts about the past and present of the country and provides competing visions of its future. * Merilee S. Grindle, Harvard University * Bolivia is passing through an extraordinary period of democratic turbulence in which formerly consensual ideas are being challenged as never before. This unusual and polemical collection of essays by some of the leading scholars of Bolivia is an important introduction to this political discussion. Readers will find here a good summary of sharply differing positions on the fundamental issues that have emerged since the election of Evo Morales. * Herbert S. Klein, Stanford University * Summarizes with clarity and candor the momentous issues that have formed the core of debates about change in this Andean nation since the landslide victory of Morales in December 2005, debates which seem to come to a head in the constitutional debate. * <i>Latin American Review of Books</i> * This engaging book should be read by all scholars interested in Bolivia. * <i>Hispanic American Historical Review </i> *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Pittsburgh PA
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
maps
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-8229-4355-6 (9780822943556)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
09/2008
Princeton University Press
€53.99
Available for download
Persons
John Crabtree is a research associate at the Centre for Latin American Studies, University of Oxford. He is the author of Peru under Garcia: An Opportunity Lost; The Great Tin Crisis; and Making Institutions Work in Peru: Democracy, Development, and Inequality since 1980. Crabtree is the editor or coeditor of several other works, including Towards Democratic Viability: The Bolivian Experience (with Laurence Whitehead).