Bolivia Society and Economy

By | December 18, 2021

Population, society and rights

The democratic status of Bolivia is not fully realized, so much so that the country is classified as ‘partially free’ according to the Freedom House index. Among the major problems are widespread corruption and continuous violations of the principle of autonomy of the judiciary. Numerous procedural procedures have been interfered with, procedural fairness is not guaranteed and the supervisory mechanism of constitutional guarantees is deficient. In the last presidential elections of 2014, only 4 out of 9 aspiring presidents managed to have their candidacy accepted.  For Bolivia democracy and rights, please check localbusinessexplorer.com.

The press enjoys greater freedom. There are eight national newspapers: three published in La Paz, three in Santa Cruz and two in Cochabamba. Sales of the weekly press have increased significantly in recent years, as has Internet usage, although the overall number of users still remains very low.

It is on the social level that the greatest difficulties emerge. Inequality and discrimination are such that a program promoted by the authorities is underway to identify situations of forced labor and enslavement of Bolivian indigenous peoples. Morales, in addition to implementing a policy of economic support for the weakest, has adopted various measures in favor of cocaleros, the coca growers put in crisis by the restrictive policies of the past administrations.

The health sector is still backward. Infant and maternal mortality are two serious problems that the government is trying to remedy with targeted initiatives and ad hoc contributions. However, the costs of treatment, the scarcity of doctors and facilities, as well as the very morphology of the territory, severely limit access to health services by the rural population.

The Bolivian population is made up of various ethnic groups: the indigenous populations (especially Quechua and Aymará) make up over 50% of the residents, the mestizos (mixed) account for 30%. Bolivians of European origin are 12% and the remaining citizens belong to other ethnic groups. The most widespread religion is Catholicism.

Over the last decade, the country has experienced constant population growth which, accompanied by a strong internal migration towards the cities, has given rise to an intense phenomenon of urbanization, so much so that half of the population is concentrated in Santa Cruz, La Paz (capital administration of the country), El Alto and Cochabamba. Less than a third of the Bolivian population still lives in rural areas, often difficult to access, due to the lack of infrastructure and the mountainous characteristics of a large part of the territory (the Andean plateau has an average altitude between 3500 and 4000 meters above sea level).

Economy and energy

In the economic field, the nationalization of the telecommunications, hydrocarbon and electricity industries initiated by Morales is leading to a profound transformation of the Bolivian economy. Some of the most recent measures concern the electricity sector: in May 2010, four electricity companies were expropriated, which alone cover more than half of the Bolivian electricity market. The energy plans outlined by Morales and vice president Álvaro García Linera foresee the construction of new electricity production plants to reach, in 2022, the capacity of 6.3 Gw.

The nationalization of gas and oil companies has a greater economic-strategic significance (despite the latter having very low extraction values). Today the state holds at least 51% of the shares of all energy industries and pursues the goal of becoming the main regional energy hub. Bolivia is the sixth country on the South American continent for natural gas production and among the last for national consumption. This allows it to export around 80% of its total production: after Trinidad and Tobago, Bolivia is the second largest country in South America for gas exports.. Major buyers of this resource are Argentina and, above all, Brazil, which depends on Bolivia for a good percentage of its gas consumption. However, the strong dependence on hydrocarbons and mineral resources is a brake on the full development of a diversified and widely developed internal Bolivian market. A weakness recently accentuated by the drop in oil and gas prices and the decline in domestic demand in Argentina and Brazil, which caused a slight slowdown in the economy and a worsening of public finances.

Bolivia Human Rights