COVER -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Acronyms and abbreviations -- Map of Bolivia -- Introduction. Bolivia: Refounding the nation -- 1. The economic birth pains of poor countries -- Five hundred years of plunder? -- Economic liberalism reborn -- A heavy dose of shock therapy and the bitter pill of structural adjustment -- The deepening of the neoliberal project -- The Latin American turn to the left -- 2. Political failures and political revival -- The frustrated expectations of the transition to democratic rule: the view from below -- The frustrated expectations of the transition to democratic rule: the view from above -- MAS: an alternative political movement -- A revolutionary period: three key moments -- Towards the 2005 victory -- 3. Revolution in democracy? -- Demanding recognition: the marches for territory and dignity -- A revolution in democracy or a revolutionary form of democracy? -- Main pillars of the new Bolivian constitution -- The challenges ahead -- 4. New politics: in search of a working relationship between the state and civil society -- The failure of old politics -- The emergence of alternative political actors -- Complexity and contradictions in the relationship between the state and civil society -- Towards a new polity -- 5. New citizens, welfare and well-being -- United in diversity -- Suma qamaña, or an indigenous understanding of 'living well' -- Welfare, well-being and the role of the state -- Living well and anti-poverty cash transfers -- Towards a new definition of the good society -- 6. New economics: the promise and the limits of post-neoliberal development -- Towards a new national productive economic model -- A story of success? -- The limits of post-neoliberal development -- 7. Bolivian-US relations: breaking the stranglehold -- A history of imperialist relations.

The transition to democracy and the war on drugs -- Fighting the process of change -- Unchanging relations and frustrated expectations -- The end of the Monroe Doctrine? -- 8. Bolivia's place in Latin America -- A Latin American bloc? -- The emergence of UNASUR -- A post-neoliberal paradigm -- ALBA and Bolivia's social policy -- ALBA: the future of South-South collaboration? -- 9. The promise and the limits of a revolution in democracy -- A bottom-up process of change -- Obstacles on the path of national rebirth -- A new direction of travel? -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Index.