Empowering Institutions: Indigenous lessons and policy perils

Robyn Eversole explores how indigenous movements see institutional change as key to development and empowerment, examining the recent Bolivian experience. In Bolivia, a country where the majority of citizens are indigenous peoples, there have been significant efforts to re-design governing institutions in more culturally relevant and locally accessible ways. The Bolivian experience shows that institutions can indeed become more participatory, but that the link between institutional change and poverty reduction depends on complex dynamics at both micro and macro scales. Eversole argues that understanding the ‘culture’ of institutions is central to the quest to empower poor communities.