ABSTRACT
The Andean countries’ natural resource wealth had historically adverse effects on their economic, social, and political well-being, suffering from a phenomenon that is typical for resource-rich countries: the resource curse. The increases in global prices for raw materials from 2000–2014 and the Left Turn of certain Latin American governments provided opportunities for repairing and preventing social and environmental damage and thereby overcome the resource curse. This chapter explores the kinds of institutional innovations that could provide sustainable changes: progressive public institutions rather than the overly broad concept of institutions in general. Specifically, this chapter examines the institutionalization of the concept of integral reparations, integrated in 2008 in the Ecuadorian legal framework, and institutionalized as a proper state program: the program of Social and Environmental Reparation (PRAS) at the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data collected during fieldwork between 2013 and 2018, this chapter finds that the enforcement of reparación integral was severely constrained by lack of funding and lack of executive power. This shows how institutions not only need to be built but also sustained over time and across space. Second, this chapter shows that the focus should shift from “are institutions present?” to “who builds which institution, and why?”. Politics continues to matter not only in terms of institutional design but also political alliances and capture of institutions.
