Resumen de Boliviens Weg zur Demokratie
The fragile process which brought democracy back to Bolivia reveals ambivalent tendencies. On the one hand there are stabilizing forces: the local level was included in the process of democratization and has now a certain autonomy; the big political parties agree on the necessity of a neo-liberal strategy; and the concept that power can be legitimized only by election is now generally accepted. The reform of the electoral law in 1991 will make manipulations very difficult. On the other hand there are destabilizing forces as well especially in the party system. The parties show very few elements of internal democracy, while personal dependencies still play an important role. The main function of these organizations is to focus on the presidential election campaigns. Deregulation has changed working conditions and opened a path to informal contracts which sometimes favour illegal activities as the cultivation of coca.
