local level. Regarding the role of civil society as a watchdog of government,
the passing of the Law on the National Dialogue that foresees an institution
called National Mechanism of Social Control is an important step forward,
although it is too early to know how this institution will finally function.
Admittedly, the additional decentralization resulting from the Na-
tional Dialogue has several advantages over the previous Law of Popular
Participation: the allocation of resources favors the poorer municipalities,
additional social control mechanisms are put into place, and it is has been
accepted that political parties lose their political monopoly in fielding candi-
dates9. Nevertheless it remains to be seen whether the serious weaknesses of
the previous reforms will be avoided.
9 This latter measure however
requires a constitutional reform.
During the negotiations lead-
ing up to the formation of the
new government that is to take
office in August 2002 the main
contending parties agreed that
the constitution would indeed be
reviewed to this effect.
The National Dialogue has also had a few indirect results. Important
to mention is that the participation process induced a further institutionali-
zation of the Law of Popular Participation. This is important and positive
because it strengthens local level actors in their capacity to contribute to
the formulation of development policies, while their opportunity to reduce
poverty at the municipal level is substantially increased. Regarding civil
society, the organization of processes in preparation or alongside the Dia-
logue showed that quite some Bolivian CSOs have the capacity, strength and
credibility to organize complex and nationwide consultation processes in a
large country with geographically widespread populations. CSOs themselves
admit that the Dialogue, directly and indirectly, has induced a transfor-
mation process, which turned their attitude from “Protesta” (protest) into
“Propuesta” (proposal). The antagonistic style which historically marked
the activities of large sectors within civil society -as in the rest of in Latin
America -- was at least partly turned around thanks to the interventions of
donors (interviews Juan Carlos Nunez; Hugo Fernandez; Vladimir Sanchez;
World Bank 2002:12). The Special Fund that financed these processes has
thus been crucial in helping certain civil society organizations contribute
constructively instead of focusing exclusively on protest. Furthermore, the
Dialogue has created an opportunity for large CSOs to work together and to
create alliances. Probably the best example is the founding of the ‘Comité
de Enlace’ (Interview Coco Pinelo; Hugo Fernandez; Juan Carlos Nunez),
which united small and medium producers and artisan organizations into
a federation. They successfully influenced the National Dialogue through
lobbying. The one other institution that has come strengthened out of this
process is the Catholic Church10. It succeeded in becoming the main actor
in the institutionalization of the Mechanism of Social Control (World Bank
2002:18).
10 The Catholic Church will call
for and promote full participation
and will give permanent assist-
ance to the National Mechanism
of Social Control (art. 29, Law
National Dialogue). The fact
that the Church has gained an
important position regarding
the institutionalization of the
mechanism of social control is
not seen as entirely positive.
Certain CSOs prefer to maintain
their autonomy and they do not
These new institutional arrangements however have to be set against
the background of Latin American politics in general and Bolivian politics
in particular.
Latin American politics are heavily characterized by clientelism and
patronage: unofficialdom, the dominance of informal rules, a bureaucracy
12 • IDPM-UA Discussion Paper 2002-05