Decentralization and Governance: From Authoritarianism to National Dialogue in Bolivia

Abstract

Decentralization and economic development are very important issues, but currently in Latin America more focus is given to governability, a more difficult problem to solve, than to economic development. Thus, the present chapter examines decentralization and governability, mainly based on my personal experience as mayor of La Paz, Bolivia. It will also briefly refer to the political-democratic system, to incentives toward decentralization, and to the tensions between representative and participative democracy. It must be taken into account that in Bolivia, the Decentralization Law of 1994 is defined as the Law of Popular Participation (Ley de Participación Popular); that is, the issues of decentralization and popular participation were jointly addressed.

This study is based on the author’s presentation at the forum “Decentralization for Economic Development,” organized by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in July 2008.