The Post-Referendum (21F) Situation in Bolivia: Radical Democracy and Institutionalism

Abstract

This essay undertakes a discursive analysis of three statements made by former vice-president García Linera in the post-referendum juncture. There, it was assumed that the reelection of President Morales was indispensable as he «sutures» the popular field. In the present essay it is stated that the re-election project as a political imperative implied an antagonistic confrontation that could not be solved in the field of the «political”. Under a scenario of radical heterogeneity, the perspective of an extreme dislocation of the institutional «floor» was seen as a minor consideration, subordinated to the advance of the «constituent power”. This essay reflects about the role and value of the institutional order in processes where a struggle for radical democracy was at stake.