Which Development from Bolivia? Indigenous Cosmologies Intersections with Politics

This paper shall analyze a particular model of development that intersects indigenous cosmologies with politics, Bolivia as case study. As a result of historical indigenous civil movements struggles for decolonizing the country and recognition of their claims, the current government has been adopting an original model of development. Two main and complementary indigenous concepts, shared by the majority of indigenous groups of the country, will be analyzed: Mother Earth and Living Well. Once they were adopted in politics, specially reinforced in the last Constitution from 2009, they have been shaping an innovative concept of development, based on the indigenous views of well-being, economy, environment and politics. This model could be understood as a hybrid of socialism, nationalization of natural resources, decolonialism, plurinationalism and interculturalism. The taste of the struggles against the Western developmentalism for Latin American countries after the Second World War, the decolonial claims since the early colonial subjugation of the country and the dissatisfaction with the neoliberal agenda from the 1990s are some of the influences that contributed to this particular model of development improved in Bolivia nowadays. The methodology applied to this research is content analysis of the Constitution of 2009 and discourse analysis of the current Bolivian politics. This research aims to contribute to the discussion of innovative models of development in postcolonial scenarios.