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through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open
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In 2005, Bolivians elected their first indigenous president, Evo
Morales. Ushering in a new “democratic cultural
revolution,” Morales promised to overturn neoliberalism and
inaugurate a new decolonized society. In this perceptive new book,
Nancy Postero examines the successes and failures that have
followed in the ten years since Morales’s election. While the
Morales government has made many changes that have benefited
Bolivia’s majority indigenous population, it has also
consolidated power and reinforced extractivist development models.
In the process, indigeneity has been transformed from a site of
emancipatory politics to a site of liberal nation-state building.
By carefully tracing the political origins and practices of
decolonization among activists, government administrators, and
ordinary citizens, Postero makes an important contribution to our
understanding of the meaning and impact of Bolivia’s
indigenous state.