State-led extractivism and the frustration of indigenous self-determined development: lessons from Bolivia

This article discusses the incorporation of human rights dedicated to indigenous peoples and the problems associated with their genuine implementation in Bolivia in the context of state-led extractivism. Through this case study I will analyse the role of state and other related internal factors impacting the viability of indigenous rights related to self-determination and self-determined development. I concentrate on the problem of the character of state that can be seen as the most fundamental obstacle in implementing rights favourable to indigenous peoples’ self-determined development, especially in terms of political culture, as well as historically developed state–society relations. The question of asymmetries of power and inequalities is strictly related to the ‘state problem’.