Master Thesis Kjersti Monen Berge Juni2010
DEPARTMENT OF COMPARATIVE POLITICS UNIVERSITY OF BERGEN ”We are equal, we are different” A social movements’ approach to the emergence of indigenous parties in Bolivia and Peru Master thesis Kjersti Monen Berge June 2010 Abstract This thesis discusses the emergence of ethnic, or indigenous, parties in Bolivia and Peru. More specifically, it seeks to explain why Bolivia has seen the emergence of indigenous-based political parties at the national level, while similar parties have so far only been successful at the local and regional levels in neighbouring Peru. The two cases share a number of attributes – most notably, both countries are Andean and they have large indigenous populations – but, significantly, differ on the dependent variable, emergence of indigenous parties. Using social movement theory and theory linking parties and social movements, this thesis tries to unite three differing focuses, or approaches, to explain the variation on the dependent variable. First, the “framing processes” approach focuses on the symbolic aspects of collective action, and development of indigenous-based discourses and their relations with other discourses, most relevantly here, the anti-neoliberal discourse. Second, the “mobilising structures” approach focuses more specifically on the organisational infrastructure of indigenous movements, while third, the “political opportunity” approach focuses on how political and institutional factors external to the social movements may encourage, or hinder, the development of indigenous parties. With this theoretical starting point, the thesis develops a model adapted to the Latin American context to explain the emergence of indigenous parties. The main variables that best explain the different development in the two cases are the following: First, in Bolivia, the ethnic discourse has prevailed within the indigenous movement, while, in Peru, the class-based discourse has been dominant.
[Show full text]