Social mobilization and instituting power in Bolivia. From 20th century to 21st

Abstract

The aim of this article is to expose the complex articulation between social mobilization and government in the recent Bolivian context. Firstly, we make some references to the popular irruption
process, which was manifested in the cycle of protests during the period 2000-2005 and was, also, capitalized in a political-identity project that won the 2005 general election. The emergence and consolidation of the Movement to Socialism - Political Instrument for Sovereignty of the People (MAS-IPSP) challenged the classic frameworks for understanding collective action and, even, questioned the status of the traditional political party as a privileged instance for representation. In the second place, we argue that MAS-IPSP promoted a process of gradual incorporation of historically excluded and politically invisible subjects. In that field, the development of new institutional arrangements has been fundamental, although when they were not exempt from friction and tensions. On the contrary, they coexist in permanent conflict with the institutions of the old order and with a diversity of actors and interests.