ABSTRACT

Indigenous peoples in Latin America are historically underrepresented in elected bodies. In 2009, Bolivia introduced a new mechanism for direct representation to counteract this systematic representation gap, securing 7 of 130 seats (5.4%) in the national parliament for indigenous peoples of the lowlands. The reform was part of a series of implementation conflicts related to a new vision of plurinational state-building, included in the new 2009 Constitution. Although most indigenous organizations were seeking a ‘power-sharing’ agreement with direct representation for all indigenous nations, the new government, led by President Evo Morales, successfully intervened in favor of a minority protection scheme. Furthermore, for the direct representatives, the room to maneuver left was severely limited, leaving little space to act on behalf of their minority constituencies. Curiously, this reduced version of direct representation is nonetheless the most advanced in Latin America. The Bolivian case provides important lessons on the ‘de-monopolization’ of political parties as a key factor in the effective representation of indigenous peoples in parliament, as well as on the importance of a goal-oriented design for electoral mechanisms focusing on substantive representation.

摘要

拉丁美洲的土著人民历来在民选机构中的代表性不足。2009 年，玻利维亚引入了一种新的直接代表机制，以抵消这种系统性的代表差距，在低地土著人民的国民议会中确保了 130 个席位中的 7 个（5.4%）。改革是与多民族国家建设新愿景相关的一系列实施冲突的一部分，该愿景已包含在 2009 年新宪法中。尽管大多数土著组织都在寻求直接代表所有土著民族的“权力分享”协议，但由埃沃·莫拉莱斯总统领导的新政府成功地进行了干预，支持了一项少数民族保护计划。此外，对于直属代表而言，向左的回旋余地非常有限，几乎没有空间代表他们的少数选区采取行动。奇怪的是，这种直接代表的简化版本仍然是拉丁美洲最先进的。玻利维亚的案例提供了重要的经验教训，即政党的“去垄断化”是土著人民在议会中有效代表性的关键因素，以及注重实质性代表性的选举机制的目标导向设计的重要性。