A Critical Review of the New Extractivism in Bolivia

• In Event: 518 - Section on Political Economy of the World System. Open Topic on Political Economy of the World System

Abstract

In the last decade, Latin America has experienced a turn to the left or ‘Pink Tide’ with the election of progressive left-wing governments in Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador and Argentina. The Pink Tide has made significant strides against the detrimental consequences of colonial legacy and neoliberalism. Paradoxically, in pursuing economic growth the Pink Tide has reinstituted the unequal international division of labor through a new extractivist model of development. Using Harvey’s concept of accumulation by dispossession, Polanyi’s notion fictitious commodities and world systems theory, this paper analyzes the new extractivism in Bolivia as a case study of the relationship between the state, development and global capital. It poses the following questions: 1) to what extend does this new extractivism constitute accumulation by dispossession; 2) what is the role of the state under the new extractivism and 3) whether this new extractivism as a development project has the potential to lead Bolivia into a new position within the global capitalist economy. Drawing on a range of empirical and theoretical works, this paper argues that the current land grabbing and territorial displacements of Bolivia’s rural and indigenous populations by traditional and the new extractivism does represent accumulation by dispossession. If the goal of the Bolivian government is to become a post-neoliberal state, this new extractivism will not provide such a path. The politics of extractivism keeps the state and the nation dependent on international capital and it does not change Bolivia’s position in the international division of labor.

Author

• Gisela victoria Rodriguez, Portland State University