1FW2e8F
1FW2e8F
1FW2e8F
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
SECTION 1 2 3<br />
WHAT CAN BE DONE<br />
Formal provisions for public participation in the political process were<br />
introduced and led the government to crowd-source a new constitution.<br />
The process included selecting citizens at random for an initial forum, holding<br />
elections for a constitutional council, making the draft constitution available<br />
online and sharing it through social media to allow people to comment.<br />
The new constitution, which includes new provisions on equality, freedom<br />
of information, the right to hold a referendum, the environment and public<br />
ownership of land, was put to referendum in 2012 and approved. 501<br />
CASE STUDY<br />
HOW BOLIVIA REDUCED INEQUALITY<br />
Bolivian indigenous groups descend from El Alto<br />
to La Paz demanding a constituent assembly to<br />
rewrite the Bolivian constitution (2004).<br />
Photo: Noah Friedman Rudovsky<br />
Bolivia was, until recently, a country where poverty and inequality sat<br />
alongside racial discrimination against the country’s majority indigenous<br />
population, who were largely excluded from political decision making. 502<br />
After a decades-long struggle by Bolivia’s social movements and civil<br />
society organizations, the country’s first-ever indigenous president,<br />
Evo Morales, took office in 2006.<br />
Social movements pushed for the creation of a radical new constitution,<br />
which enshrined a series of political, economic and social rights,<br />
including extending provisions for participatory and communitybased<br />
governance.<br />
110