Cuba and Bolivia: Two Distinct Processes, One True Revolution?

This article claims that the Bolivian revolutionary process of 2000-2005 did not follow on the steps of the Cuban Revolution’s strategy. The sheer strength and autonomy of its social mobilization, the absence of a maximum leader, and the meshing of democratic elections with mass mobilization have given a turn of the screw on revolutionary strategy in Latin America, producing stable majorities through a lock-in process, whose ultimate outcome has not been the assault on state power. The emergence of a dictator and a unique party in Cuba, and their absence in Bolivia, are explained by the size of their autonomous sociabilities: very large in Bolivia, and very weak in Cuba.