Demokratisk handlingsrom : eit studie av nasjonaliseringa av dei bolivianske gassressursane og demokratisk utvikling

Abstract

Bolivia has canged radically the last years. Due to severe social problems and strong political mobilization of the grasroot movements, the political party MAS and the former coca farmer leader Morales won the presidencial elections in 2005. The mobilizations and the elections resulted in a political shift. Bolivia changed its role in Soth America from beiing one of the neoliberal experiments, to becoming one of the left wing locomotives. The nationalisation of the gas resources is one of the main political changes that has occured.

Nationalisation is a context dependent process. The nationalisation of the Bolivian gas is characterised by an increase of the taxes and a strengthening of the state owned gas company YPFB. The transnational companies operating in Bolivia now pays more tax to the Bolivian state and the Bolivian state represented by YPFB has bought several rafinieries that were sold to the Brasilian company Petrobras during the nineties.

Using the democracy theories of Beetham, who put enphasis on the dependet relationship between the political and civil rights and the social, economic and cultural rights, I have analyzed the democratisation aspect of the nationalisation of the gas resources. The main finding is that the nationalisation represent a democratic space as the strategic resources is now put under democratic control and that the increased income of the sector to the state invested in social reforms is contributing to social equality.