ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the period 2014–21, tracing the evolving party-base relations in Bolivia. The chapter discusses how, when Morales sought to change the constitution to allow repeated re-election, he was ousted in a right-wing coup. While some sectors of the MAS base took to the streets in support of Morales, others remained quiet, while others still participated in anti-Morales protests, thereby helping prevent a drift from regressive centralization to authoritarian centralization. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the longer-term legacies of Bolivia’s outsider-led post-neoliberal process, suggesting they will be defined by the capacity of organized popular sectors to re-group and overcome internal divisions fostered by the MAS, to reclaim and strengthen participatory spaces opened under Morales’ leadership and, via these spaces, to defend and advance the socio-economic gains achieved during the process.
