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Backlash Reconsidered: Neoliberalism and Popular Mobilization in Bolivia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Håvard Haarstad  and
Vibeke Andersson
Håvard Haarstad
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and the Poverty Studies and Research Initiative at the University of Bergen. [email protected]
Vibeke Andersson
Affiliation:
Aalborg University, Denmark. [email protected]
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Abstract

This article argues that the common narrative of a Bolivian backlash against neoliberalism should be reconsidered in light of the continuities and mutual constraints between popular mobilization and neoliberal policy reforms. The study draws on literature that conceptualizes neoliberalism as a particular construction of state and social forms; but unlike those works, it includes an analysis of International Monetary Fund policy shifts to understand how popular mobilization constrains policy implementation. Responding to popular mobilization between 1985 and 2006, the IMF came to accept divergence from orthodox policy in order to encourage political stability. The government of Evo Morales and the IMF are mutually constrained by concern for the investment climate. This study further advocates that analysts probe beyond simple binary divisions between “neoliberalism” and “alternatives” and look more seriously for pragmatic strategies for negotiating neoliberal spaces.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , Winter 2009 , pp. 1 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2009

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