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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

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