Paper short abstract:

This presentation explores the strategies used by rural community organisations to attract infrastructure and development projects in the Bolivian Altiplano, drawing out the implications of these for understandings of public policy implementation.

Paper long abstract:

Although the potential and limitations of local participation in public policy have been hotly debated, the extent and nature of informal strategies enacted by community organisations to influence state institutions 'from below' is an understudied area. This presentation explores the techniques used by rural communities in their interactions with public institutions in rural Bolivia. It shows that community leaders engage in a combination of statistical manipulation, bribery, and selective engagement with social movements in order to secure development projects. These strategies are driven by a combination of material interests and political dynamics within rural communities. The implications of this for development are mixed: on the one hand the rural poor are capable of asserting their own agendas vis-à-vis the state so that they can benefit from public spending, while on the other hand their tactics have the potential to drive elite capture by better-off communities and perpetuate inefficient uses of public resources. Understanding the drivers of bottom-up strategies and their influence on local-level development processes is necessary for a more realistic understanding of the role of local communities in the implementation of public policy.