Ciao!

I am still arguing secession is a long shot, though not entirely impossible.

What the business elite are asking is for "autonomy".

MB:

I'll try to put together a longer post to explain what I mean by "secession" & my approach to the literature on national identity, especially in base of a chapter I just finished reading on Italy's Padanian identity (in the north of the country) that resembles to a great degree the Camba identity question.

But, yes, outright secession (either a peaceful split or, worse, a bloody inter-regional war) is possible, though not probable. But the literature I'm looking at on the subject uses the word "secession" in a broader sense, including movements for "autonomy" or "federalism" or something else. Basically, any idea that re-defines the concept of what the "nation" is away from the previous (unitary) conception is a "secessionist" movement, even if the goal isn't outright separation into two or distinct more nation-states.

This is all based on some literature that argues that nations (all nations) are mythological constructs conciously (for the most part) designed by modern intellectual elites. That is, the idea that nations & nationalism are a product of modernity. Thus, any nation (and especially one like Bolivia) is an artificial construct based on some common cultural myths taught by the controlling class (e.g. the idea of linking in history books the Bolivian state to the Tihuanacu civilization as a means of establishing a pre-existing "Bolivianess" as far back into history as possible. Since all nations & nationalists are "imagined communities" (as Benedict Anderson argues), they can be reformulated by other elites (e.g. the promotion of a "Nación Camba" mythos) once the old mythos no longer holds sway.

That, at least, is the brief gist of it. I'm studying how the crisis of the Bolivian liberal democratic state opened up "space" (if you will) for elite "ideological entrepreneurs" who want to push new formulations of ethnic/national identity w/in the Bolivian public space (both "Nación Camba" & "Pachakuti" forms).

Dosn't that sound like a "fallacy" to you? ;-) (fallacy meaning " A statement or an argument based on a false or invalid inference".

Secession means the formal withdrawal from membership in an organization, association or alliance.

According to the literature you are reading, secession is "in a broader sense, including movements for "autonomy" or "federalism" or something else."

I am just messing with you. :-) I see your point and it would be interesting to read what you have to say. For my part, I will start a series of articles in MABB talking about the Bolivian Decentralization model and the role of the Departamentos. By the way, I think, that is one of the reasons why CPSC (led by these business people, who are not even real cambas) is making a move for greater relevance at the departmental level.