2 & 11

04.20.2004

Got a birthday package in the mail from Andy. Out of the blue, he decided to look up some comics & send them along to me. Thanks for Global Frequency #11 & The Authority #11 — you remembered rightly.

From there, I went to my appointment at the Ministry of Justice to interview two coordinators for the Constituent Assembly. A bit unsure about interviewing two people at once (even if it does kill two birds w/ one stone). But it worked out well — one of the most interesting interviews yet. Mainly because they're both from Tarija, which is a very different perspective of national politics than you usually get in La Paz.

After the interview, we got into a brief discussion over whether Bolivia should return to the pre-97 joint-list PR electoral system (my preference) or whether it should adopt a presidential second-round (Liliana's preference).

While I see the merits of a second-round presidential election (ensuring 50% +1) in theoretical grounds, comparative experience demonstrates that countries w/ multiparty systems should avoid second-round systems (especially in Latin America). You end up w/ a very strong check between executives & legislatures, usually resolved by executive decrees or other para-constitutional measures (see Fujimori or Chavez) — not to mention that conventional wisdom is against presidential systems to begin w/ (I'd rather Bolivia became more "parliamentary").

Posted by Miguel at 05:44 PM

Comments

Glad you liked the comics! Oh yea, .. MSU has a Comic Collection Archive in our Main Library .. I guess it's the largest in the US. We even has a full time staff person in charge of it. :)

Also, Phi Iota Alpha is having our annual enlightenment conference at Columbia U this summer ... one of our Bros will talk about current Bolivian poltics and the Chilean sentiment. Should be pretty cool .. he asked if I had any thing to add for the presentation ... maybe you would like to go? I think it is in July...

Posted by: Andres at April 21, 2004 12:02 PM

Yeah, my friend Josh Upson told me about it. He's been using it for some of his research (he's a philosophy student).

Posted by: Miguel at April 21, 2004 03:50 PM

I don't like Bolivia's system because essentially the popular vote does not count. What you have, when no one reaches more than 50% is behind-the-scenes negiotiating. The parties make alliances and promises to lend support/votes in exchange for ministries and other public jobs. Goni became President, when approximately 78% voted against him and for someone else. The Presidency is not decided by votes, but rather, alliances and coalitions based on distribution of public sector jobs.

Posted by: eduardo at April 21, 2004 07:42 PM