Ciao!

As to: no constitutional provision for a Constituent Assembly, meaning that parliament must first amend the Political Constitution of the State (CPE) to allow for such a body. Beyond that, parliament will no doubt debate the structure of the assembly (e.g. how will delegates be elected?).

I am most interested to see how this turns out, government forming in media res, as it were.

A most fascinating nation.

Yeah, I Want to know what the political actors think about what Mesa has spoken, we'll have to wait for a little while. Here is the link to Mesas's message to the nation: http://www.bolivia.com/noticias/AutoNoticias/DetalleNoticia17999.asp

Yes. It's a startling development. I hope that in the end, the parliament will just make the wanted/necessary constitutional amendments (since a Constituent Assembly would just write a new constitution). But the postponment of this move won't make many happy -- Santa Cruz & Tarija (the oil/gas regions that threatened secession) demanded they want a Constituent Assembly before any gas referendum. Since they want to ensure regional autonomy that would make the referendum a region-only issue, keeping in mind that these regions supported Goni's government (they still support Goni!) and opposed the protesters.

Two tidbits. First i bet that you ment to say something like $50 million dollars, or maybe $50 thousand dollars, but $50 doesn't go that far on it's own even in bolivia.

Secondly, i'm assuming you were trying to say that 40% of the national budget goes to paying international debt.

On a substantive point. Won't the wait of a couple years before the Constituent be enough for the traditional parties to take it and make it toothless.

What's this i hear from folks talking about an uprising in Feb or March?

Yes, the correct number is $50 million USD destined for El Alto, North Potosi and the outskirts of Santa Cruz.

As far as the budget breakdown, Mesa cited these numbers:

(approximately 8 Bs. = 1 USD)

15,000,000,000 Bs. Expenditures
9,600,000,000 Bs. Revenues
-5,400,000,000 Bs. Difference (deficit)

3,000,000,000 Bs. Expenditure used for External Debt

Bolivia spends approximately 20% of its expenditures on external debt.

I think the political parties will be looking to make the constituent as difficult as possible because it threatens their functionality and existence. If a second round is implemented into the presidential elections, then the entire corrupt coalition system will disintegrate. These coalitions breed the whole “pega” system which provides a disservice to citizens and never provided representation.

This speech was straight to the point and established a timetable for the upcoming referendum, local gas connections and constituent assembly. Mesa also provided the budgetary figures, which seems to reinforce this increased attention to access to public information.

I also agree that responsible citizenship is very important for participative democracy. However, Bolivians need to know that this difficult change of mindset will not be in vain.

I made the correction in the post that the figure for the Emergency Social Fund was $50 million. Sorry about the oversight.

As for the question of a second round in presidential elections. I think this would be disastrous. For a good argument for why this is so, you can read Juan Linz, The Perils of Presidentialism.

And while there was a great deal of pegas in the Bolivian political system, I wonder if it was more/less than found in most European parliamentary systems (which are also based on coalition governments). I would strongly oppose a second-round electoral system, and would instead keep the basic framework as it stands, w/ some other corrections instead to other elements of the party system.

My complaint towards the coalition system boils down to the degree to which the pegas undermine the entire public administration. Broadly speaking, whenever a new administration takes control, everyone from a department minister to the building doorman and everyone in between is replaced within the public administration. This causes serious loyalty and quality of public service issues.

I cannot speak for European governments because I have little knowledge how they operate, but I would imagine they are much more advanced in terms of merit-based and competitive hiring not based on political affiliation. Corruption is encouraged in this type of set-up in Bolivia where an enormous number of jobs are at stake.

I find that the political parties that want to participate in coalitions are not doing so for what’s best for their country, rather what’s best for their party. Once allied with the ruling party, these coalition parties get their share of the pie (prefectos, ministries) and can distribute the jobs as they see fit and reward their loyalists. Jobs in the public administration are not viewed as a way to serve their country, but rather, serve their fellow party members and pad their pockets during their short-lived tenure.

Eduardo:

While I agree w/ you in general, there's a few minor points that must be fleshed out. If by the pegas system you mean the problem of complete turnover in the state bureaucracy every time coalitions change, then you're right to condemn the pegas. The national bureaucracy in Bolivia should be: A) trimmed down in personel, B) professionalized & insulated from partisan politics, and C) modernized.

I wouldn't, however, condemn coalitions-based politics as a whole. First, because it's quite successful in Europe. Second, because the lack of coalition politics in many other Latin American politics have created highly polarized, unstable presidential regimes. Up until recently, Bolivia was a remarkable case of presidential stability — in large part credited to its coalition-based politics.

Finally, I'd be cautions about a broad condemnation of parties. While I agree w/ most scholars that the majority of Bolivian parties are unprogramatic, personalist vehicles, some of the parties are "institutionalized" parties (or at least they were). Still, too many bad eggs spoil the whole basket.