ABSTRACT

This chapter investigates the tensions generated by the extractive process and the way these are legitimized by and resisted through nationalist discourses. It examines the exercise of governmental power beyond the use of force and it interprets the nationalist discourse employed by state authorities as governamentality: shaping citizens as subjects that are functional to the states grand objectives. The chapter begins by providing a broad overview of the role of extractivism and alternative development models in the Bolivian Constitution and the National Development Plan. It discusses concrete policies in the extractive sector and the way in which the government and opposition movements have used resource nationalism as a discourse to promote their ideas. The chapter explores Bolivia in the international context by juxtaposing prominent positions on climate change with infrastructural investment for regional integration. The new Constitution re-founded Bolivia as a plurinational state and recognized indigenous cosmology and autonomous organizations based on indigenous territories.