Political parties
From Bolivian Politics
Bolivia has historically had a multiparty system. Until 2002, the party system was dominated by three to five medium-sized parties. Seats in the National Congress are (since 1997) elected in a mixed-member proportional electoral system. Before 2005, no presidential candidate was able to win a simple majority, and coalition governments were the norm. Only recently, the party system is dominated by two parties: MAS and PODEMOS.
All political parties must register with the National Electoral Court (CNE). Recent constitutional changes allow civic associations and indigenous communities to register and run slates of candidates in municipal, departmental, and national elections. Some of the "parties" registered with the CNE are more appropriately considered electoral fronts or electoral alliances. For simplicity, they are all referred to here as parties.
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Major parties
The following political parties, civic associations, or electoral alliances won seats in the 2005 general election and the 2006 constituent assembly election.
National parties
The following political parties have presence in all nine departments.
- Acción Democrática Nacionalista (ADN)
- Concertación Nacional (CN)
- Frente de Unidad Nacional (UN)
- Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS)
- Movimiento Ayra (AYRA)
- Movimiento Bolivia Libre (MBL)
- Movimiento de Ia Izquierda Revolucionaria - Nueva Mayoría (MIR-NM)
- Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR)
- Poder Democrático y Social (PODEMOS), officially registered as Alianza Siglo XXI (ASXXI)
Regional parties
The following parties have presence in only one department.
- La Paz
- Alianza Social Patriótica (ASP)
- Movimiento Sin Miedo (MSM)
- Plan Progreso (PP)
- Cochabamba
- Oruro
- Potosí
- Alianza Social (AS)
- Movimiento Originario Popular (MOP)
- Tarija
- Santa Cruz
- Alianza Trabajo, Responsabilidad, Eficiencia y Seguridad (Alianza-3)
- Alianza Andrés Ibañez (AAI)
- Autonomía Para Bolivia (APB)
Minor parties
The following parties did not elect delegates in the most recent 2006 constituent assembly election.
- Alianza de Bases (ALBA)
- Alianza Social Integradora (ASI)
- Convergencia Democrática Ciudadana (CDC)
- Movimiento Autónomo Regional (MAR)
- Movimiento de Acción Ciudadana (MACA)
- Movimiento de Integración Boliviana (MIBOL)
- Transformación Democrática y Patriótica (TRADEPA)
- Unidad Cívica Solidaridad (UCS)
The following parties did not meet the electoral threshold in the 2005 general election and lost their registry status.
- Frente Patriótico Agropecuario de Bolivia (FREPAB)
- Movimiento Indígena Pachakuti (MIP)
- Nueva Fuerza Republicana (NFR)
- Unión Social de Trabajadores de Bolivia (USTB)
Ideological classification
Because of the country's strong populist legacy, Bolivian parties are often difficult to categorize by ideology. Likewise, many parties officially declare themselves as "nationalist" or heirs of the national revolution, regardless of where they fit on a left-right spectrum. Nevertheless, the parties can be broken down as follows into the following categories:
- Christian democratic
- Katarista (Indigenous)
- Marxist-socialist
- Syndicalist
- Neoliberal
- Neopopulist
- Regionalist
- Social democratic
A final type are the personalist parties, which are both difficult to classify on any spectrum and quite common on Bolivian politics. A variety of political parties display a strong element of personalism, but the term is reserved for those that are almost purely personalist political vehicles.
