Latin American Post-Neoliberal Development Thinking: The Bolivian ‘Turn’ Toward Suma Qamaña

Abstract

One of the most innovative elements of the current Latin American post-neoliberal context is the attempt to rethink development from the point of view of indigenous cosmovisions. In the Andean region, this dynamic is exemplified by the crystallization of the Suma Qamana or Living Well paradigm. I want to focus here specifically on the case of Bolivia, taking as my frame of reference the most comprehensive and systematic statement of the Movement Toward Socialism's (MAS) vision of development, namely, the National Development Plan (PND). An important ambiguity, I want to argue in this article, undergirds the PND. The PND elucidates Suma Qamana from both alternative development and post-development perspectives. That is, the concept is developed as an alternative to liberal capitalism, on one hand, and as the more radical, postcolonial critique of modernity, on the other.