What happens when community organisers move into government? Recent experience in Bolivia
Since 2005, the Bolivian government has been in the hands of the MAS (Movimiento al Socialismo), a party which defines itself as the ‘political instrument’ of Bolivia’s strong social movements which brought Evo Morales and the MAS to power. The chapter explores how conceptions of class and race are reflected in the policies of a government in which many leading figures come from a community organising and social movement background. The MAS claims that ‘state power circuits (now) pass through the debates and decisions of indigenous, worker and neighbourhood assemblies’, rather than elite channels. However, as the MAS nears its first decade in power, tensions are beginning to show. In exploring these tensions, the chapter helps to illuminate both the potential and the pitfalls of an attempt to embed radical conceptions of class and race in the state, and to foreground community organising and community development principles in government policy.