Territorial Cleavages and the Bolivian Constitutional Transition

This chapter examines the territorial dynamics behind Bolivia’s constitutional transition of 2006–08 and the political process during that period. Evo Morales’s landslide win in the presidential election of December 2005 set the stage for a protracted constitutional transformation that is still playing out in Bolivia. The chapter first provides a historical background on Bolivian politics marked by constitutional, legal, and policy reform and periods of social unrest, political mobilization, and popular revolt before discussing the period of constitutional engagement and the outcome of the 2009 general elections. It argues that territorial cleavages played a crucial role in Bolivia’s constitutional transition, which broadened territorial support for the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) from western enclaves to the eastern lowlands over a five-year period. The chapter also identifies two key institutions that secured the broad legitimacy for constitutional reform: an impartial electoral court and a functioning constitutional tribunal.