What Neoliberalism Could Not Do, the MAS Can: Divergences and Compatibility between Political Forms and Capital Accumulation in Bolivia

Recently, the policies promoted by the government of the Movement to Socialism Party (Movimiento al Socialismo; MAS) have shown themselves to be increasingly and explicitly tied to the interests of old and new dominant elites. In contrast to the neoliberal era, when domination was confronted with broad popular resistance, the recent capitulation to old and new dominant elites has become feasible thanks to the new forms of organization of state control that were established with Evo Morales's presidency in 2006 and during subsequent political-economic transformations. This article examines how the political form on which Morales's government was founded instituted a narrative and practice that penetrated and disarticulated popular—mainly communitarian—forces that once resisted neoliberal politics, effectively making the Bolivian socio-economic structure more permeable to transnational capital.