'Doyle’s compelling ethnography of Indigenous self-governance institutions in highland Bolivia demonstrates the limitations inherent in state-led decolonization projects. He shows how, despite the MAS government’s promises to devolve power to local communities, its reforms ultimately destabilized the very communities they sought to empower. Doyle makes a forceful contribution to the literature on colonialism and the state, arguing that meaningful decolonization requires recognizing and amplifying existing forms of self-governance rather than reducing them to bureaucratically legible forms.'
Nancy Postero, Professor of Anthropology at UC San Diego and author of Now we are Citizens and The Indigenous State

'This book makes an important case-based contribution to understanding efforts at decolonization through the adoption of new constitutions, as Bolivia famously attempted in 2009. Through examining the country’s failure to advance decolonization in any substantial way, it illuminates the complexities, contradictions and political challenges that such projects face in practice.'
Linda Farthing, journalist, independent scholar and co-author of four books on Bolivia including Coup: A Story of Violence and Resistance in Bolivia (Haymarket Books, 2021)

Introduction: Indigenous political conflict in the new Bolivia
I Decolonizing the state in Bolivia
1 Decolonization, states and legibility
2 Indigenous politics and the Bolivian state

II Indigenous local politics and the plurinational state
3 Territory and identity: the National Agrarian Reform (INRA) Law and the legal status of land
4 The meaning of living well: the Popular Participation (LPP) Law and the local politics of development
5 Indigenous autonomy: the Autonomies and Decentralization (LMAD) Law and local governance
6 Legal pluralism and Indigenous justice: the Jurisdictional Demarcation Law and the 2009 Bolivian constitution

Conclusion: The new Bolivia, decolonization and state reform
References
Index