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Participation as an Essential Element of an Active Civil Society
the participants gathered at the table, engaging and enriching the social
capital present in Bolivian civil society.
Successes of the Bolivian Model
The experience of the alliance roundtables has increased citizen
participation at the national, regional and local level. The local level
experiences stand out given they produced concrete and tangible results
in the short-term. Two illustrative examples from the municipalities of
Potosí and Coroico are provided.
The city of Potosí, located more than 4,000 meters above sea level at
the base of the legendary Cerro Rico, which was once filled with silver
that lined the vaults of the Spanish Crown, is one of the places where
this innovative methodology of citizen participation is working. In
this locality, the alliance roundtables managed to gather representatives
from the municipal government, the state government, the president
of the neighborhood associations, the president of the craftsman’s
association, the coordinator of the tourism operators association
and representatives from the University Tomás Frías of Potosí. For
the first time representatives from the municipal government and
state government, who were from different political parties, engaged
in dialogue, and for the first time, an encounter between various
representatives of the municipality took place.
The problem identified was a lack of alternative revenues to those
generated by mining. It was determined there was much opportunity
in the field of tourism and they decided to take action and created the
following:
Tourismplan
Potosí 365Days andNights
:The municipal government
and local tourist operators met to design a plan to improve tourism
services, placing an emphasis on the dates when there is a low influx of
people, setting up events and festivals that encourage tourism during
those periods of time. The plan also provided incentives for night-
time activities to encourage tourists to stay overnight in Potosi, and
