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THE STATE AND SECTIONAL INTERESTS: THE BOLIVIAN CASE *
Author(s) -
WHITEHEAD LAURENCE
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1975.tb00520.x
Subject(s) - bureaucracy , state (computer science) , politics , context (archaeology) , political science , modernization theory , government (linguistics) , vulnerability (computing) , political economy , development economics , sociology , geography , economics , law , linguistics , philosophy , computer security , archaeology , algorithm , computer science
The article presents a case study of the contemporary Bolivian state in interaction with the major interest groups and locates the Bolivian example in its comparative context. An analysis of the internal organisational problems of the Bolivian state is followed by an account of its exceptional vulnerability to international pressures of various types and a description of the unusually intractable domestic political problems it confronts. These conditions are held to explain (if not to justify) many of the techniques of government adopted by successive Bolivian régimes. There follows a discussion of the pattern of political behaviour which major domestic interests are constrained to adopt in response to the normal conduct of the Bolivian state. In general such interests are highly insecure, aggressive in their pressure group tactics, deeply politicised and subject to wildly fluctuating fortunes. However, it is also recognised that they vary widely in the resources they command, the aims they pursue, and the alliances they can enter into. In the conclusion the uniqueness, or otherwise, of the Bolivian case is assessed and this country study is related to the general debate on the degree to which military bureaucratic régimes in the Third World may be considered autonomous from sectional interests and capable of promoting some forms of ‘modernisation’.