Ethnic Politics and Identity Change in Bolivia

During the past decade, Bolivia has experienced upheavals in the social and political spheres, accompanied by a rising salience of indigeneity in political discourse and policy. While the increasing inclusion of indigenous Bolivians is applauded by observers in policy and academia alike, some are concerned that the mobilization and politicization of indigeneity might have heightened ethnic tensions and thus undermined national unity, a process repeatedly observed elsewhere around the world. This paper presents an analysis of the development of indigeneity in Bolivia over the past decade, answering key questions relating to the extent to which identities have been affected by ethnic politics. It first examines the development of political identity discourses, identifying three phases: the inclusion of indigeneity into the national Bolivian identity and the increasing assertiveness of an indigenous collective identity, followed by an increasing contestation of indigeneity. Second, the paper quantitatively examines multiple dimensions of indigenous identification in Bolivia, using survey data collected by the Latin American Public Opinion Project over time. The analyses show that ethnic identifications do indeed change with changing political discourses, that they do so quicker than expected, and not necessarily in the manner as expected: the type of reaction in identification depends on the type of dominant discourse, demonstrating that it is necessary to distinguish different elements of ethnic identification. Finally, the paper finds that, contrary to often-voiced fears, the salience of indigenous identification has not led to a decrease in national affiliation but to an increase. Besides shedding light on the situation in Bolivia, this analysis thus contributes to the wider debate on the interplay between political processes and identity change.