…Yes, but is it Democracy?

'Democracy' is a word invoked by people in the name of all kinds of things in Bolivia.

It is the word hot on the lips of civic leaders in four eastern states, as they demand 'autonomy' from national authorities. I am not sure how that claim to democracy jibes with the fact that the Bolivian electorate rejected that exact same proposal 56% to 44% when it was put to a national vote a year ago. I also don’t know if 'democracy' was invoked last week when 'civic leaders' in Santa Cruz pulled down billboards not to their liking, which called for 'indigenous' autonomy in their region.

Now, on the other side, in January, 'democracy' was one of the justifications used by opponents of the local Governor, Manfred Reyes Villa, when they occupied the Central Plaza and blocked entrances to the city calling for his resignation. I asked some of them at the time about the democratic legitimacy of a few thousand people occupying the plaza seeking to overturn an election involving tens of thousands of people. "The people have spoken," I was told. It seemed, to be honest, a weak answer.

Oh yes, let us not forget that Reyes Villa has also recently been polishing his 'democracy' credentials. His latest adventures involve sending thugs out in official state vehicles to destroy and confiscate political literature that he considers unkind to his image.

In the decade I have lived in Bolivia, 'democracy' has been invoked in the name of citizens toppling presidents, and presidents ordering the shooting of citizens. It is a justification called on equally by both the left and right. So, it might be reasonable to ask, what part of all the current political bluster in Bolivia is really about democracy.

Who said this would be Easy?

Ground zero for the current 'lucha libre' (I had to work the photo in somehow) of Bolivian democracy is the Constituent Assembly currently underway in the city of Sucre, charged with the mighty task of re-writing the nation's constitution. Delegates elected a year ago have been grappling in 21 different commissions over issues ranging from gas and oil policy to regional powers.

Two things about the Assembly are not especially surprising. First, the debates taking place there are tense. A week ago leaders of the opposition PODEMOS party (those are the conservative members) started a fistfight with their adversaries (and the police). Second, the process is taking longer than planned. Delegates were supposed to wrap up work by Bolivia's national independence day in August. Last week only 6 of the 21 commissions presented their work results on deadline and both MAS and the opposition are asking for more time, 3 to 6 months.

To be sure, Bolivian democracy is hardly clean and tidy. The recent low-point was last January 11 here in Cochabamba, when a chess game played our between a power-seeking Reyes Villa and an overreacting local MAS leadership descended into an afternoon of mob on mob violence that left 3 men dead and more than one hundred others injured. I think that violence actually served, gratefully, as a wake-up call to all sides and the big players took their chess moves back into the political process.

So, I ask again, is all this democracy? I say it is, and here is why.

Bolivia is in the midst of a historic political transformation, an inevitable one, I would say. In more psychological terms, Bolivia is dealing with its shit.

It has just gone through a political u-turn in which some of the groups most excluded from power now have it and are still learning how to use it. Some of the groups who have had political power here for so long that they thought it was their birthright have suffered a series of election defeats and now find themselves on the outside. On the table is the nation's basic economic direction, the content of a new constitution, and some fundamental questions about national identity and character. And these issues have to be worked out against a backdrop of deep divisions of economic class, ethnicity, and regional interest – divisions so deep that the defense of high altitude football (soccer) seems to be the only issue of national unity.

Did anyone really expect this process to be simple? Those who see themselves losing power – much of it based on privilege – are deeply afraid. That is human nature. Those gaining power have mighty fears of their own – that a political revolution they have dreamed of and worked toward their whole lives might be robbed from them by those who have had power and aren't keen to concede it.

Beyond Ideology

Observers and writers who like to lead with ideology, either right or left, love to paint Bolivia's current struggle in deeply ideological terms. What we have at hand is either a right-wing oligarchy hell bent on hegemony, or pseudo-communist authoritarians secretly aiming to give Iran an Andean foothold. Take your pick.

In fact, Bolivia is addressing real issues. Take 'regional autonomy.' In most every country I have worked recently – from Croatia to Brazil – there is an active debate about how to decentralize national power out to the more regional or local level where, presumably, it will be 'closer to the people'. It is a debate as old as democratic governance.

But, let's not confuse that with the demand for regional autonomy coming from Santa Cruz and its eastern partners. This isn’t about the right to make regional choices about what school texts their children will read. It is about geology. They happen to live on land where, thanks to their luck not their hard work, geology planted trillions of cubic feet of gas and oil. Of course they'd like to maximize their share of it. If my daughter is the last trick-or-treater at a house ready to close down for the night (okay, this presumes we would be in the U.S., but go along with me for a minute) and inherits a windfall stash of a dozen Kit-Kat bars, she is going to want to keep them. That's human nature. But really, if I took her door-to-door, shouldn't I get a fair cut?

Santa Cruz never called for autonomy when the mineral wealth of the nation was in tin and silver mines in the highlands. It is not unreasonable for a nation to treat natural resources as a national asset, as opposed to allocating the riches that result just to the people lucky enough to be living on top of them. So, of course, Bolivia is having a heated debate.

And, let's put all this into a little bi-national comparison. If only the U.S. had put in this much passion and debate before jauntily sending troops off to make regime change in Iraq. Members of Congress, in both parties, blithely took that action without even bothering to read all the intelligence reports made available to them. If only U.S. politics would deal as seriously with the crisis in health care access as Bolivians are debating a new constitution.

In other words, one of the reasons that Bolivian politics looks so heated and messy is because the nation is talking about real issues and the people of the country have strong opinions. And that, more than quiet elections, silent citizens, and gentle rebuttals to the Presidential State of the Union addresses, is what real democracy needs.

The Goofiest Idea So Far

Oh, lastly. I do want to weigh in on one issue here. The party PODEMOS proposed an idea recently to formally move the Capitol of Bolivia from La Paz to Sucre (Politics 101: this is what you do when you just want to stir things up). Well, I was in La Paz a week ago and I have to tell you, I think that moving those buildings is going to be a lot of work. If PODEMOS thinks it is such a good idea. Let's see Tuto Quiroga (the party leader) lift that Congress building off its foundation. It has got to be extremely heavy. Who does he expect is going to lift that thing and put in on a truck?