Paper short abstract:

This article discusses the contested relations between the notion of vivir bien as state policy and bureaucratic practices in Evo Morales’ Bolivia. It argues that its implementation is challenged by everyday techniques and procedures of the state that continue to create and reproduce coloniality.

Paper long abstract:

Since 2006, the notion of vivir bien - a conglomeration of critical ideas, worldviews, and knowledge deriving from a complex set of social movements, indigenous groups, activist networks, and scholars of indigeneity - has been introduced into Bolivian policy-making processes. It is portrayed as a democratizing and decolonizing policy alternative that provides locally grounded solutions to societal problems. While much of the outcomes of public policy shift have already been critically assessed, there is still a lack in showing how and why these difficulties in implementation emerge. By discussing the contested relations between the notion of vivir bien as state policy and everyday bureaucratic practices in Evo Morales' Bolivia, this article tries to fulfill the gap. It argues that it is not solely the grand ideological battles or political conflicts that impede the implementation of this new policy alternative; more attention should rather be paid into unveiling the internal functioning of state bureaucracy. It is demonstrated here that multiple everyday techniques, procedures, and routines of the state continue to create and reproduce various forms of coloniality. The ethnographic evidence presented in this article suggests that it is these exact - and assumingly insignificant - bureaucratic routines that derogate vivir bien transformation agenda internally. Consequently, together with resistance and outright racism by public servants, it is shown that deep ruptures have emerged between political rhetoric of decolonization and concrete everyday actions amidst state bureaucracy.