0

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN THE

PLURINATIONAL STATE

Javier Espada Valenzuela

1

PREFACE
Everything is interconnected, like the leaves of a tree in the fall all and change color in
response to a direct order from the trunk. The color is revealed in a gradual manner
and the leaves that choose not to follow the change, simply dry up and fall to give life to
new sprouts as they prepare for him coming of spring.
We have reached a point in our history where we must understand that the planet is a
system and the components that give it its own sustenance are the beings that inhabit
it. Bolivia is as well a living organism and all its inhabitants do have an effect upon it,
whether positive or negative affects its present and future. Therefore it is very
important to develop a caring attitude towards those with fewer opportunities. Our
nation cannot project to be a world referal if we do not think we are related to one
another and considering that unbreakable nexus that unites us, forces us to improve
the quality of life for many, therefore it depends on our own existence.

To Dani, Sofi and L

with whom we sacrificed
many family hours for this book.

INDEX
PART I: The State and Corporate Social Responsibility
Chapter I: The State.Pag. 6
Chapter II: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)Pag. 17
PART II: A historical, political and social development context in Bolivia
Chapter I: From the Eighteenth Century to the present day...Pag. 26
Chapter II: A historical record of CSR in the Constitutions of BoliviaPag. 35
Part III: Fundamental aspects to the practice of Corporate Social Responsibility
in a Bolivian context
Chapter I: The territoriality..Pag. 38
Chapter II: The theory of Social Coresponibility..Pag. 43
Chapter III: Sovereignty..Pag. 48
Chapter IV: The legitimate Power.Pag. 56
Chapter V: Citizenship.Pag. 61
Chapter VI: From Corporate Social Responsibility to Corporate Citizenship:
The theory of the Fourth Result.Pag. 66
Chapter VII: The broad concept of Cooprporative CitizenshipPag. 70
Chapter VIII: Volunteering.Pag. 74
Final Chapter: The "Dino-entrepreneurs".Pag. 77
CONCLUSIONS..Pag. 79

PART I
The State and Corporate Social Responsibility

Chapter I
The State
In order o understand the present study fully, it is important that we realize that the
creation of a State is a historical process that shaped various social, cultural, political
and economic factors, where the Company has played a key role.
In Greek and Roman cultures commercial activities were seen as a "necessary evil"
where philosophical restrictions were appearing upon the work of the merchants.
The concept of the state as we know it today, was caused by political and socioeconomic
movements in Europe between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries (Renaissance
Age). Over the years, the historical process entailed a sense of appropriation and
identification of cultural and national communities in a given area with clearly defined
boundaries under the peonage of a government that ran the destiny of the people. The
medieval State was characterized by a predominantly agricultural economy, a slow and
localized type, which was expressed through a feudal system.
The system of vertical authority and people of higher social and political hierarchy
controlled the vassals of the people. The government had a graduate decentralized
distribution of political power that resided upon the Emperor, the Church and the Law
(this rigid structure was controlled by kings and feudal lords such as: Counts, dukes,
princes, etc.. and finally, the people ). This power was limited, since the institution over
which political power actually resided was the Catholic Church, this church imposed a
common culture to all other scales of power. This is how politics in the Middle Ages
became another aspect of theology; all power was derived from God through his
Church, however, there was a real conflict of power between the Emperor and the Pope,
so so that as of the year 1300, the power of the Church was facing domestic realms that
were seeking to regain their lost political power, all based on numerous social classes.
The law at this time was the result of divine natural law professed by the Church, that
means that it was a matter of custom and tradition(1). The structure of power was also
replicated by the Church. By order of hierarchy, there was the pope, cardinals,
archbishops, bishops, abbots, priests and finally the people. Many bishoprics and
abbeys acted as feuds over the territory: they leased land, collected taxes, managed
armies, etc.
The monarchs at the time were interested in retaining power in their persona, they
negotiated with the feudal lords whom supported by the bourgeois individual rights,
exchanged their rights in return for large privileges. This way, the concept of loyalty
was replaced by that of authority, obedience and command, all typical of a centralized
state. The individual rights and obligations were acquired according to wealth and race.
The transformation from Medieval to Modern state state was very slow and was given
in response to major social and economic changes. The first factor leading to these
1

http://www.mercaba.org/FICHAS/Enciclopedia/R/reforma_protestante.htm

changes was the discovery of new sources of wealth, trade routes of medieval Europe
were limited and towards the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century, they
discovered new lands (India, Africa and America) and new trade routes, this brought a
flood of silver and spices. The second factor was the development of international
finance due to new trade.
For a great deal of the fifteenth century medieval art forms survived, beginning a
coexistence amogst classes, which gradually imposed upon gothic elements in authors
like Brunelleschi and Fra Angelico. This series of phenomena suggests that talk of this
parting is not entirely correct, it is perhaps more of an evolution that allows us to better
understand the manifestations of the fifteenth century.
The Renaissance
Originated in Italy in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, and expanding
through Europe in the middle of the fifteenth century and then through the midsixteenth century to the American-hispanic world. It was a universal movement that
adopted the characteristics and the past customs of nations through a process of
assimilation. The origin was Italian only because because Italy is essential due to its
historical past, that now, we wish to reclaim and relaunch it. Also, there is another
relevant factor and it is because in Italy there was never a full and strong mediaeval
grasp as what happened in Europe, precisely because there was still an alive classic
spirit.
Politically Italy was organized around city-states that obtained political and artistic
boom led by Florence. After the death of John Galeazzo Visconti in 1402, attempts to
make Italy a united kingdom under the command of a single ruler, this exceeded their
real possibilities. In the Renaissance, Italy's history revolves around its five main states:
Florence, Milan, Naples, Venice and the Papacy.
The constant struggle to push these boundaries made it possible for the creation of a
new social group: The Condottieri, they were characters that specialized in war, great
strategists generally commanding a company, but, ultimately, their fate was decided by
power, needs, objectives and resources of the prince or state to which they served. The
wars between the Italian states were made by contracts, through the Confottiero, for
nearly two centuries. This pseudo-mercenary tradition prevailed in Europe since the
thirteenth century, thanks to the economic development of the cities, population
growth and the tradition of the Crusades, enabling part of the of the landowners class
to join efforts to produce a large surplus of armed groups that were in turn, heavily
qualified. With the growth of trade in European cities, Santo Thomas Aquinus
established the concept of a just price (as first outlines to what is now called inclusive
business) determined by markets and reasonable profit margins obtained in the trade
process.
In the Middle Ages, the Christian Church was fighting usury and people lived in a localist
economy and individual initiative was limited, but with the vast expansion of
international trade, there came a new social class, the bourgeoisie, a new wealthy class
7

that as as trade accumulated wealth. There arose a revolution in the methods of

cultivation of land, resulting from the advancement of science and technology and,
consequently, in the distribution of land ownership and a new Reformation led by
Luther, who led this movement against the corruption of the Church. The driving force
of this movement was the Bible as a source of truth, namely, the man did not see the
need for intermediaries between him and God, and did not require the Catholic Church
to interpret the Holy Scriptures, this is how the resource of power changed, it was not
the Pope or the Emperor leading anymore, but rather, the Nation. The end of the Middle
Ages brought a declination of the power of the Pope and the Holy Roman Germanic
Empire. Early Renaissance Theories proposed that government was an institution with
a divine origin. Then arouse new thinkers who renewed political theory requiring the
separation of powers: Government is an earthly institution made of human invention
that has nothing to do with divinity. One of the first theorists to affirm this ulterior
theory was Dante, in his work in the "Monarchy", he defends the civil over the
ecclesiastical authority. Many other thinkers such as Marsilius of Padua and William of
Occam, propose this division as well.
Thus, the birth of customers was established, this because the economy was released,
small traders would take autonomy and bankers who, with their patronage(2), drive
business relationships on a national and international level. But this capital movement
was not controlled by a strong State to promote such initiatives, but rather, generally
operate as private companies, managed, often, on a family basis subordinated to the
initiative of a lineage or a wealthy social class. Generally, these were aristocrats who
were not members of nobility nor did they pretended to be, however, they were
recognized as people of high prestige in the Renaissance society. They stood outside the
courts, availing the situation for the prince or monarch who knew no financial
mechanisms, opening for them a special field of opportunities as economic operators
or brokers, funding some of the expenses of the court. Not belong to the noble or the
ecclesiastical class, because their capital was competed against them.
The continuing religious restrictions posed by the Catholic Church, they considered
these negligible commercial activities and businesses dispisable. The immense power
of the Catholic Church began translating, as well, in the way of doing business. The
Jewish ideology favored capitalism, reform and the birth of protestant ethics made
trade no longer viewed as a demeaning job.
The birth of patronage also boost union layouts, turning the city itself which in turn
provided with funds generously from their coffers, into the enlargement of their cities
While the patronage existed throughout all of history, and continues to exist when it comes to
individuals with economic power to stimulate scientific research and artistic development, this
phenomenon was very characteristic of the Renaissance. At this point in history, out of a dark period as
it was traditionally in the Middle Ages, I mean the appearance of a multitude of artists that followed new
artistic precepts and they sought to portray reality as it looked like instead of representing God. So, many
bourgeois and aristocrats (mainly located in the flourishing cities of Italy) sought to be portrayed in its
importance and magnificence in a period in which the representation of God and Christian elements had
begun to lose centrality.
2

(what is now known under the concept of philanthropy). So for example, the Hospital
of the Innocents in Florence was provided by the guild of silk art(3). It is at this point
that the merchant started to become an important figure, dedicated to market products
that were manufactured by craftspeople allowing the specialization of tasks to cause
the cost reduction of production and transaction.
Between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, trade and industries grew in steadily
fashion, converting capitalist ethics into a cornerstone of human development.
With the conformation of guilds throughout history, the commercial fabric was
increasing until the rise of mercantilism, based on the exchange of merchandise and
accumulation of gold and silver to generate wealth. With this equity, traders opened
their own workshops, which in turn progressed and gave way to the creation of
factories.
With the opening of the first factories, organization became most important, it was here
that began the first anonymous societies and capitalism, based on the exchange of
goods, thus ending feudalism that was based on the control of a territory and not in
exchange with other territories.
The new financial system is a respectable institution and recognized throughout the
world, and exclusive rights of private property was universally admitted.
This is how the foundations of the modern state were built, which was based on a
centralized force. Western Europe is established according to the new concepts of
defined territorial states. Each with its own bureaucracy, its army, its population and
its government.
This state contains several constitutive aspects, among them are: The territoriality,
sovereignty, constitutionality, public bureaucracy, legitimate power, citizenship,
central taxes and the creation of a national army.
Along with technological advancement, this allowed the industrial processes of
factories to mechanize, and there came the First Industrial Revolution that brought the
steam engine, the railroad, improved communications, transportation and trade, which
later formatted, the creation of companies specializing in financing, transportation of
merchandise or in the commercialization and distribution when banks were created,
thus arises the proletariat and the industrial bourgeoisie.
After the First Industrial Revolution, there also came a second during the nineteenth
century, which brought technological improvements for transportation (combustion
engine, trains and trollies) and communication (telegraph, telephone and radio) thanks
in great part to the discovery of electricity and oil.
These advances allowed the reduction of costs and a significant improvement in the
3

Extracted text "The Renaissance" by Monica Diez de la Cortina

speed process of production and distribution that allowed the creation of different
production units in a same company (which required some coordination). In this way,
the first steps in business administration began, the result led in a large-scale of
production and monopolies. The companies charged in a much more prominent role in
the system. However, in the wake of the crisis in 1929, the business labor was in
question, it focused in greater powered States which remained that way until a little
after the Second World War. It is from the decade of the fifties that companies began to
consolidate and manage the threads of the global economy up to the current situation
where many large companies are now more economically powerful than many
developing countries.
Living in the Present: The State in the Postmodern Era
In terms of time and space, the concept of knowledge is analyzed with the changes of
modernity to postmodernity. It is considered the beginning of the French
Enlightenment Modernity in the eighteenth century until when World War II ended,
that meant the rise of rational thought, materialism, scientism, progress, overcoming,
criticism, vanguard, nature and social reality were the object of objective knowledge,
and ideology versus theology. There was a transition from the medieval concept of
perception by the modern concept of objective knowledge.
In modern times, the theories of Newton, Descartes, Bacon, Locke, Hume and others
predominate. They pose as a space of progressive transparency, and as a project of
emancipation. Modernity is understood or characterized as an effect of critical
overcoming.
It is in this context that Kant's ideological position is highlighted and worth mentioning,
ironically, as higher faculties of theology, jurisprudence and medicine, all leave
philosophy as an inferior faculty. As to explain this hierarchization, Kant comes into
discussion between the two conflicting purposes regarding knowledge. He claims that
the government is not interested in knowledge for knowledges sake, but rather for the
results, and not where the intended truth is concerned, nor is needed, its an exercised
based on scientific authority in order to submit unto certain statutes.
Philosophy for Kant (in that ironic tone) falls in the range of lower power, and does not
contribute to immediate practical ends. "Reason does not move here freely and on its
own, without being subject to any orders of government, but ratherl it is doomed to
inefficiency and fully have to resign itself to not exercise any influence upon the
progress that is business ... The faculty of philosophy is entirely outside the circle of
those who command and those who obey ... the scientific reason is a struggle against
power and against tradition."
The transition towards the postmodernity posed a turn of that objectivity, rationality
and knowability adding, that nothing is outside his or her time process, so nothing is
totally objectified, and is not built on the rejection of an unknowable idea. The truth is
no longer real, objective and complete as suggested from different scopes, Heisenberg,
Berson, Freud, Srdinger, Levi-Strauss, Sausurre, Ortega y Gasset, Nietzsche and others
10

state. So that reality is not fixed, knowable and objectified but rather it is a construct of
segments. This conformation, home of Postmodernism, defined and shaped and
composed by Habermas, Baudraillard, Vattimo and others, includes a rejection of
modernity as the only value, and infuses new aesthetic cultural, social and economic
values(4)
Postmodernism is built in the new technological world and that of global information,
thus, the traffic from the traditional concept of knowledge has been immersed in the
processing of electronic information. This space is full settlement of artificial
knowledge, which means the emergence of a new paradigm in the field of social
economic sciences.
The changes may seem to be the common denominator of the last few decades.
Although there is a global crisis there are still territories, sectors, institutions, groups
and generations living the crisis very differently.
The paradigm of Modernity emerges as a social-cultural project between the sixteenth
and the late seventeenth century. Only as the end of the eighteenth century begins,
indeed, the evidence being put into practice, and it is at this time it coincides with the
emergence of capitalism as the dominant mode of production in the advanced modern
capitalist societies of today, since then, the paradigm of modernity is linked to the
development of capitalism. Modernity was born with absolute confidence in reason and
in the individual freedom of people, it naively believes in democracy, as an expression
of true social equality. It breaks excessive hierarchization from tradition or blood titles.
It is anti-colonialist which seeks the self determination of the people. It predominates
in scientific and technical mentality and with a blind faith in progress, conceiving it as
unlimited and irreversible. It develops the cult of work, in which the effectiveness of the
machine predominates (and that means less family time). The widespread aspiration
to equality and freedom grows everywhere, both taken from excessive sense of
optimism. Political parties, unions and universities enjoy of excellent reputations. The
so-called right-wing parties are slowly adapting to this new circumstance and situation.
The leftists live in a new utopian and egalitarian society, no longer as a great ideal for
which they must fight, but rather as something that is at hand and that occurs inevitably
and automatically, without any force exisitng that can stop it. The state plays a decisive
and transformative (leading) role in society. However, it generates excessive
centralization. The extreme nationalism that predominated in Modernity drove a ruling
class leading to disbelief or agnosticism. The blind faith in scientific advancement and
the cult of reason, relegated towards religion to a simple unscientific vestige in the
obscurantism of the past centuries.
As a cut that slashes through scientific disciplines, aesthetic expressions, the world of
values, politics, philosophy, economics, education and daily life, they are expressed by
Alaien Touraine and Jean Francois Lyotard who speak of postindustrial society and

Social science doctoral thesis: "The importance of knowledge management in the civil service of the
race of the chamber of senators for organizational learning", Moyado Socorro
4

11

postmodern culture.
After the Second World War, abd in capitalist countries, post-industrial society opens a
path, characterized by developing productive forces (automation and cybernetics) and
a modification of social classes based on a Taylorist production model: Decrease the
amount workers, increasing the amount of liberal professions, technicians, scientists
and employees.
The knowledge and information, considered as factors of production, become a
necessity for the success of economic ventures. The modifications also take place in the
commercialization and expressions appear to be typical of the era, such as: Recycling,
relaxing, image, consumption, stress amogst many others. The gap between the richest
and the poorest is increasing as well as the extension of social marginality.
Quoting Kant: "Any value, decision or quality can either be bad or harmful only if the
will in which it is intended to make good use of them" so, the postmodern stance can
vary between good and bad. It is bad when it favors the banality, consumption, the easy,
the image just for the image and a self-centeredness that is in selfish manner could be
good if we can rescue the transcended man, without the intent or implying
universalism, but rather the existence of different ways of seeing the world rooted in
tradition that now enter talks so that other views can amplify the ways of
understanding and interacting with both the part that is material with men and women
and among ourselves(5)
The social cultural paradigm that appears before the capitalist method of production
becomes dominant and later fades away before its termination. This disappearance is
complex because it is, in part, a process of abandonment and, in part, a process of
obsolescence. It is abandonment to the extent that Modernity has fulfilled some of its
promises in some cases, sometimes even to excess. It involves a process of obsolescence
that in Modernity it is no longer able to fulfill any other promises. Both in excess, as well
as the deficit in the fulfillment of the historic promises that explain our current situation
as a period of crisis, and at a deeper level, constitutes this a period of transition(6)
In the words of Gregorio Iriarte (2008): "The postmodern project is ambiguous, both in
its origin as well as in its characteristics. There are those who insist that it is only a
logical and profound expression of the crisis of modernity. Since then, the postmodern
man has lost his confidence in progress, in the utopias, in the profound changes towards
a more just and fraternal society. The situation will not change, but the individual, and
by a personal entitling way, will eagerly seek change of this situation, especially in
relation to their present status. Individualism, exacerbated and fierce, leads man to
think in a postmodern selfish and self-absorbed way. But it doesnt matter if that deep
personal changebe deep or not, what matters is appearance. Appearances are worth

5
6

Jimmy Lemus, Cunapa Foundation, 2011

Boaventura de Sousa Santos: Postmodern TRANSITION, LAW AND POLICY, 1989

12

more than the reality, so as to have is more important than being"(7)

Modernity had meant the emancipation of the individual's submission to social and
family environments, the Postmodern culture accentuates individualism to the level of
selfishness.
Gilles Lipovetsky mentions that "disciplinary socialization is broken and it elaborates a
flexible society" permanent consumption, comfort, objects, money and power. If
Modernity endorsed saving, then Postmodern Society stimulates and facilitates
consumption. The Postmodern subject is far from the subject that had awareness in
effort and pride. Apparently now, everything is achieved without effort.
This conception of life pushes hedonism, consumtion and the full enjoyment of the
present moment. The past is no longer ours.... neither is the future. All we have are our
hands in the present. The here and the now, we must live them with the fullest intensity.
This conception merely a utilitarian and fractional piece of our present, leads many
young people to get carried away with new social distractions and pastimes such as
drugs, internet gaming, excessive alcohol consumption, excessive debauchery and
excessive sexuality.
Against this background, another highly propagated antivalue is the indifference, a true
detachment that shows our humanism consumed by a cult dedicated to the material.
Postmodern society is the historical reversal of the aims and methods of socialization,
currently under the aegis of open and plural devices, in other words, personalized
hedonistic individualism has become the legitimate and now has no opposition; the age
of revolution, scandal, and the hope for an inseparable modernist future has concluded.
In postmodern society mass indifference reigns; it dominates the feeling of reiteration
and stagnation; the private autonomy is no longer discussed, the new is welcomed as
the old; innovation is trivialized and future is not assimilated as an ineluctable progress.
Modern society was conquering, they believed in the future, science and in technique.
Rupture was instituted upon the hierarchies of blood and sacred sovereignty, traditions
and particularism in the name of what was universal, for reason and revolution.
"That era is being visibly dissipating, partly against those futuristic principles in which
societies are established, because of this postmodern fact, the greed of identity, of
difference, of conservation, of tranquility, of immediate personal fulfillment; the trust
and faith in the future is dissolve; and no one believes in the bright future of the
revolution and progress; people immediately want to live in the here and now, staying
young and no longer forge the new man"(8)
We live in a globalized historical period where globalization and localization are, at the
same time, driving forces and forms of expression of a new polarization and
7
8

IRIARTE, Gregorio, "Globalization, neoliberalism and postmodernism", 2008

LIPOVETSKY, Gilles, "The era of empty: Essays on postmodern individualism", Chapter 1

13

stratification of the global population into the globally rich and the poorly located.
This accumulated indifference, plus the lack of interest in others due to selfishness has
caused greater inequality in the world over the last ten years.

1 % of the world population has a weath mass income equivalent to the poorest
57 % of the world population. This means that 63 million billionaires have as
much as 2.7 billion people.
The 100 richest people in the world accumulate wealth equivalent to the total
income of the poorest countries on the planet.
The average income of the 20 world's richest countries is 37 times the income
of the 20 poorest countries.
225 billionaires have assets and wealth that equals 47 % of the world
population. In 2011, we got to 7 billion people in the world, which means that
225 billionaires have what 3.29 billion people have.
The three richest people have so much wealth and riches that if you added their
fortunes, they achieve the GDP of the 48 poorest countries in the world.
1.73 billion people make up the world of consumer society, 28 % of the world
population: 242 million live in the United States (84 % of its population), 349
million in Western Europe (89 % of the population), 120 million in Japan (95 %),
240 million in China (only 19 % of its population), 122 million in India (12 %),
61 million in Russia (43 %), 58 million in Brazil (33 %) and only 34 million in
sub-Saharan Africa (5 % of the population). In total 816 million consumers
(80 % of the population) live in industrialized countries and 912 million in
developing countries (only 17 % of the population that make up the Third
World).
As 1.7 billion consumers spend over 20 euros daily, there are 2.8 billion people
who have to live on less than 2 USD a day (at least to meet the most basic needs)
and 1.2 billion people who live on less than 1 euro daily, they live in extreme
poverty. While the average American consumes 331 kilos of paper each year, in
India they use around 4 kilos and much of Africa uses less than 1 kilo.
15 % of the population of industrialized countries consume 61 % of aluminum,
60 % use lead, 59 % copper and 49 % steel. Similar figures could be repeated for
all types of goods and services. Consumption and poverty coexist in an unequal
world in which there is no political will to curb the consumption of some and
raise the standard of living of those who need it most.
If the spending habits of the 1.7 billion consumers were to be extended to the
entire world population, the situation would be completely unsustainable
because of the consumption of water, energy, wood, minerals, land and other
resources, therefore, we would see mass biodiversity loss, pollution,
deforestation and climate change.
Between the years 1950 and 2002 water consumption has tripled, the fossil fuels
has increased fivefold, the meat grew by 550 %, emissions of carbon dioxide
have increased by 400 %, global GDP increased 716 %, the world trade grew
1,568 %, global spending on advertising grew 965 %, the number of tourists who
left their borders grew 2,860 %, the number of cars has gone up from 53 million
14

in 1950 to 565 million in 2002, and theconsumption of paper grew 423 %

between 1961 and 2002. Significant efficiency gains are quickly being absorbed
by the increase in mass consumption. Homes are getting older and cars are
becoming more powerful.
The consumer works to many excessive hours in order to pay their compulsive
use, and little leisure he has, is spent in said car (the U.S. uses 72 minutes behind
the wheel) or watching television (more than 240 minutes per day). This is a
clear example of becoming increasingly trapped in a spiral of consumption,
borrowing to consume and work to pay higher borrowing. Consumption is at the
expense of mortgaging the future(9)
In Latin America:
The number of billionaires with more than one billion dollars of personal wealth
in the region has elevated from 476 in the year 2003, to 587 in 2004, according
to the latest report of "Forbes"magazine.
The richest 10 % of the population takes 60 % of the wealth, while the poorest
10 % get just 2 %.
The 14 richest Latin Americans, according to Forbes, accumulate wealth in an
excess of 50 billion dollars. This represents the annual income of more than 100
million poor people in the region.
In Bolivia:
According to a recent UNDP report, the richest 10 % of the population achieve
incomes 79 times greater than the poorest 10 %.
The enforcement of fundamental rights shows huge gaps between departments;
inequalities accumulate amongst indigenous and non-indigenous groups, and
three out of 10 Bolivians feel discriminated against by "not having money" for
their "ethnic origin" for their "way of speaking "and finally,"skin color ".
According to data provided by the CEPAL survey in 2011, the average years of
schooling of the population over 19 years, in the year 2007 was 7,3 %. Being
male, urban, non-indigenous and belonging to the richest 10 % of the population
have doubled this achievement to 14 years of schooling on average. Being
female, rural, indigenous, and belong to the poorest 10 % of the population
involved an achievement of only 1.3 years.
According to CEPAL data in 2011, Bolivia has a poverty rate of 54 %. The number
of people in extreme poverty was 31,2 %. The condition of poverty is not having
regular access to basic needs for survival: About 28 % have access to drinking
water, and about 24 % of children under 3 years old is in a state of malnutrition.
In Bolivia there is an estimated two million boys, girls and adolescents living in
a poverty situation.
In the last sixty years, the Bolivian population has quadrupled and will rerach
12 362 780 people in 2020. The average annual growth rate for the 2010-2015
period is 1,9 %, with higher growth in the departments of Pando, Santa Cruz and

Extracted from Worldwatch Institute Report, 2010

15

Tarija. This rapid growth characterizes Bolivia by having a predominantly young

population: 64 % are under 30 years and only 4 % are over 65 years. However,
like most countries in the region, the country is in a phase of demographic
transition, characterized by a decrease in the birth rate and increased life
expectancy, the result is a gradual aging of the population. In 1994, the fertility
rate fell from 4.8 children per woman to 3.5, while in 2008 the life expectancy at
birth passed from 60-68 years old(World Health Organization, 2011). In 1995,
Bolivians under 20 years had a share in the total population, 51 %, which was
reduced to 48 % in the year 2005 and it is estimated to be reduced to 44 % by
2015 (Equal opportunities for children and youth in Bolivia, World Bank Report
2012).
Land ownership is highly concentrated: 686 farms have an average size of
16,000 hectares. 1,300 farms are more than 2,500 hectares. Combining both
cover more than 66 % of the country's agricultural land(10)
91 % of arable land within the country are in the hands of landowners, while,
71 % of the population have to make do with the remaining 9 %. The large
landowners, meaning 5 % of the population, hold 89% of the land. The medium,
which represent 15 % of the population, are owners of 8 %, while, the small
farmers, who make up 80 % of the population, hold only 3 % of the land(11)

Under these circumstances, there has been a series of obligations set upon the
individual, institutional and corporate workforce, which are all embodied in what is
now known as Social Responsibility and are all based on the importance of them, in the
new context of the consumer system.

10
11

CENTER FOR ECONOMIC AND POLICY RESEARCH, Thematic Report, July 2008
CEPRID, November 27, 2011

16

Chapter II
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Social Responsibility is a concept that appears in an explicit manner in the midtwentieth century. However, its affirmitive to say that, in ethical and moral terms, this
concept has been in the regulations to ensure correct business practices. This is why
Social Responsibility refers to the capacity of responsiveness that every public official
or citizen have towards the entity where they work, towards their city, and their
citizenship itself, towards the facts of their government and the coexistence within their
communities and with the environment as well. The State, an official or public servant
and a citizen are socially responsible when their activities are oriented to the
satisfaction of the needs and expectations of the population, the society and those who
benefit from that activity, as well as also, the care and preservation of the environment.
When we refer to this capacity, we refer mainly to the ability for the proper practice,
monitoring and control of what is public.
Fulfilling the compliance of Social Responsibility within each organization is an
imperative ethical, moral and social endeavour, because it is through the fulfillment of
this effort that contributes to the strengthening and/or recovery of the Social Fabric
and the construction of what is known as Social Capital (a concept that we will see later
on). Every organization must fulfill social responsibilities, both to their internal
audience, meaning the staff that they all work for, as well as externally, with different
sectors and people with whom they interact, known today as stakeholders (interest
groups).
The force of events, as in recent years, both in the international field, as well as on a
local scale has been causing a higher level of awareness in the different levels in
identifying the need to act as a "shockforce" fundamentally against the phenomena of
gradual social and environmental degradation. These developments have led to the
emergence of conventions, covenants, agreements, standards, guidelines and an
endless number of strategies aimed at generating greater social equality, improved
quality of life and greater respect for the ecosystem.
Faced with this issue there are different positions: Advocates, who believe that
organizations are responsible for what happens in their environment, and as such,
should be generating concern and development in all sectors with which it interacts
and eventually whom are responsible for their growth, development and carry on over
time. Others, meanwhile, believe that organizations have no responsibility other than
filling the need to generate profits, assume other responsibilities that neglect the
purpose for which they were created(12)

Milton Friedman, believes that "the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits", this
means that the rest is an idealistic speech unrelated to the reality of business (quoted in Gelinas, 2006).
Quoted in: "The social responsibility of Business is to Increase its profits" in: Hoffman & Moore: Business
Ethics: Readings and Cases in Corporate Morality. New York, McGraw Hill, 1984.
12

17

The concepts, throughout history, have been diverse and its denomination, likewise,
just as different; however these differences, the common element has been the concern
of organizations to respond to the needs of not only of the environment where these
are located, but as well as sectors with whom they interact with such as the staff that
they have working for them. This evolution allows us to identify four stages:
Precursor Stage: If it is true that there are some records that illustrate facts, such as the
poor relief of the fifteenth century and many others designed to help the less fortunate,
as a result of the introduction of capitalism we can only speak of a "precursor stage" of
Social Responsibility in itself (as central category of analysis), leading back to the first
half of the nineteenth century. Now it is with Robert Owen (1771-1858) and James
Montgomery (1771 - 1854) who were initiating the so-called "Industrial Upgrade", later
known as the " Capitalism Benefit"; but it was not until until 1870 where it was
consolidated as a coalition among the clergy, journalists, academics and capitalists, all
with the aim of improving "the mental and moral qualities of the working
population(13)
These experiences began with the railway industry personnel; Cornelius Vanderbilt
(1794 - 1877) and other magnates of the industry, started young Christian associations
and schools to meet the physical and spiritual needs of the railway workers. Some
expressions of this stage were charitable actions executed by American entrepreneurs,
who as well performed charity work for the community, which caused a positive good
image in the eyes of their customers.
The foundation for this type of behavior lied within the principles of Christian charity
and helping the neediest. In this course of action it was commonly known as
philanthropy(14)
Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), from his time, and in his book "The Gospel of Wealth"
(1889) had already established that the wealthy and their corporations had to assume
the responsibility of overseeing that the wealth of the whole society went to a better
good, attending to and guiding disadvantaged individuals or the less fortunate (Icontec,
2004). Simultaneously, the regulation of some of the social practices took place,
resulting in the first manifestations of social security in the late nineteenth century and
the first half of the twentieth century, as was the case, for example, the regulation of
working hours and the improvement of some working conditions.
Second Stage: The economic, social and political consequences of the Second World War
advocated the debate about the responsibility of companys and how they had to
contribute towards the improvement of these consequences. The changes in the the
sixties, especially in American society, motivated reflection concerning the
organizations and their responsibility for solving the problems of society, and the need
www.admon.8m.com/html/teorias.htm/, 2005
Etymologically, the word philanthropy comes from the Greek Philos "loving", and Anthropos: "Man
that is:" love of mankind ". In the history of industry it is very common then, by extension, Industrialize
those that help the poor, be recognized as philanthropists
13
14

18

to transcend their exclusive economic function.

This context promoted the movement of corporate philanthropy, particularly in the
United States and Europe; in our neck of the woods, this is expressed through cash
donations or material in goods, or through paternalistic practices for their staff and
their families such as: The celebration of the first communion of a worker's son, and the
layette gift for the baptism, the celebration of religious events within the facility, the
sale of groceries or whatever you call patronage, among other practices.
Third stage: This lies within the period of the eighties, it is here where there was a great
debate of the role of business in society and their responsibility for damages or risks
caused by the production process. Some governments intervened through regulations
and legislations that aimed towards environmental protection and public interest
consolidating itself more in the concept of Social Responsibility as an organizations'
response to the needs of the different sectors in which it interacts.
The debate about the responsibilities that organizations have or might not have
regarding their contribution to solving the problems of society has led to radical
positions such as the aforementioned Milton Friedman, who in turn, paraphrased by
Drucker (1993) and argues that: "The business that shows no earnings at least equal to
the cost of capital is socially irresponsible."
In the same line of thought, Peter Drucker, in his book Post Capitalist Society (1993),
argues that in the society of organizations, each organization is an organ that performs
a specific function and each performs a particular task: "Organizations only harm
themselves and harm society if they undertake tasks that are beyond their specialized
competence, their specialized values, and its specialized function" (Drucker, 1993).
Fourth stage: This stage is consolidated in the nineties. It is the period in which
governments, companies and institutions are generally recognized as the main
characters on a stage of same common space, where their role is different but
complementary in their interdependent actions. It is considered that social
management that is made up is unprofitable, but instead strategic, as it recognizes that
its survival is in direct relation to the quality of society in which it operates. The role
that is required of the company is to exercise "corporate citizenship" as a citizen, and it
must interact in society of which it is part of (Icontec, 2004).
The Economics magazine: published "We are referring to the issue of Social
Responsibility, for many, its exercise involves many selfless acts and for others its
effects are, in today's society, a factor of competitive advantage for the economic
benefits that the company can write off ".
As can be seen, the current concept of Social Responsibility points towards a business
management model that transcends paternalistic practices and care, in order to
constitute itself into a response focusing on phenomena such as globalization,
environmental degradation, the violation of human rights, lack of social equality,
pollutant production, child labor, among others.
19

There were several events that determined the social challenges facing organizations
today and that have affected, on a significant level, the new role that they should play
within a society, and therefore, in the performance of their social responsibility, but
whose scope is above paternalistic practices and short-term purposes, that is oftenly
associated with this concept. From the facts being stated, that have occurred since the
mid-twentieth century, you can highlight two efforts: First, the universal legitimation
of human rights and the responsibility of organizations before them, this has involved
the implementation of approved standards, in this regard, by international
organizations that protect the work, and whose character work has been mandatory.
The other fact is "globalization", a global phenomenon that brought great benefits for
some and negative economic, social, environmental and labor effects for others. Among
these consequences it is worth mentioning the high concentration of wealth, unequal
pay, unloyal competition practices, the growth of poverty worldwide, ecosystem
degradation, etc.(15)
These events have been forcing an international consensus around the creation of
norms, regulations, codes and standards, all designed to provide minimum conditions
that allow trade and markets more equitable and just among nations. It is in this sense,
that the concept of social responsibility tends to universalize, to be a part of the
management of organizations, changing the role of these within society and to become,
in some cases, a strategic resource for business survival, generating, as a result, the
concept of social return by the economic benefits that these practices generate directly
or indirectly.
Among these various actions that have now arisen in this regard, we must single out
the leadership of the United Nations with Kofi Annan at the head, when, in the Economic
Forum in Davos (Switzerland) in January 1999, he calls for all companies in the world
to adopt "The Global Pact", and that this pact would respect nine universal principles;
some in the field of human rights, labor standards relating to others (such as respect
for freedom of association, abolition of all forms of forced labor, discrimination in its
various forms and child labor) and others related to environmental protection, such as
the adoption of strategies for their protection and the dissemination and use of ecofriendly technologies. The purpose of the agreement is to create a more equitable world
with market room for everyone, its objective, as singled out by the Secretary General
Kofi Annan is that the adoption of these shared values and principles serve as a human
face to the global market.
Under this same line, in September of 2000, in the city of New York,
the Millennium Summit was held. This time 189 countries thata are members, pledged
to meet global targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (also known as the
Millennium Development Goals or MDGs). There are eight human development
purposes that should be met by the year 2015: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
achieve universal primary education,;promote equality between genders and the
For studies on the negative effects of Globalization can be seen, among others: Gelinas (2006), Stiglitz
(2002 and 2003); Aktouf (2001)
15

20

empowerment of women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat

HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability, and
encourage global partnership for development.
So, this is where CSR becomes a tool to achieve compliance with the MDGs.
Another factor that has contributed to the structuring of the concept of Social
Responsibility has been the Theory of Systems that has been applied to the
organization( 16 ). In this regard, this theory states that: A system is a set of
interdependent and interacting parts aimed towards a means, that affects and is
affected by its setting and in turn, is composed of subsystems that are part of a larger
system, called a macro-systems, which in this case would be society.
In turn, the Organic Conception of these organizational studies compares the
organization with a living system; this is how the organizations along with the
organisms are part of a macrosystem. In this case the society that the company interacts
with is in a process of mutual influence, whether it be positive or negative, in which
each one, organization and society, are jointly responsible for the performance of the
other.
In practice, this behavior can be seen in the ability to influence some organizations that
have in regards of the setting where they are located, being contributory to its
development or, as it so happens happens in other cases, responsible for their decline,
much like when companies pollute that environment. The organization-society
interaction involves shared responsibilities, in practice, not only with the sector within
the social environment in which they operate, but as well as with suppliers, customers,
shareholders, distributors, the public sector, the environment and generally speaking,
with all sectors that that make it possible for organizational growth, development and
therefore sustainibility. These areas are known today as stakeholders(17)
So then, within the particular logic of the contemporary macroeconomic model that
ultimately operates as a setting for the organization, the interdependence with some of
these sectors is as follows(18):
Clients: Every organization needs somone to demand their goods or services; these
users, whom today we now call "clients" can be, depending on the type of organization,
customers, patients, consumers, etc. Every organization, no matter what their business
For the study of the Organization as a System, among others can be seen: Checkland (1994), Etkin &
Schvarstein (2000), Luhmann (1998), Morgan (1998) Von Foerster (1997)
17 However, it should be noted that here is this referring to the organizational "deontology", this means
the "must be" and the intent with which businesses are started. The warning must be done for any of the
stakeholders and could also contribute to the liquidation of the company.
18 Here we must establish a very important warning: the diagrammatic presentation is made of the
stakeholders in this article, it is carried out from the functionalist paradigm, which is the one commonly
used by both organizational and administrative studies. Be warned that since there are other frameworks
for sociological analysis that are not reconcilable with the aforementioned epistemologically
functionalism.
16

21

may be, necessarily, needs to meet the expectations and demands of these customers,
this is evident even within "non-profit" organizations. The expectations and demands
of various audiences are influenced and, in some cases, determined by economic, social,
environmental and cultural aspects. The organization must learn how to read this
environment if they want to keep their customers satisfied. In contemporary
rationality, by not doing so would mean that they condemn their own failure.
Government and public sector: Government measures have an economic effect not only
in organizations, but as well as in the general population. Taxes and security on
property have direct effects on productivity, investment and purchasing power, in turn,
government institutions get funding from taxes that allow them to provide services that
the community needs.
Company: Much has been discussed in relation regarding the liability and whether or
not organizations respond to the demands and needs of society, its most immediate
surroundings. The values, beliefs and attitudes of society determine the social behavior
of the organization and, therefore, the level of demand. So, it is necessary to take into
account that these specific characteristics, when it comes to administrative decisions
for example, will impact society.
Employees and their families: Within its interior, the organization establishes a series
of relationships with different human groups that are imperturbable, and that, along
with its performance, makes its functioning possible, and also generates an
interdependant relationship as well. Organizational Behaviorism(19), points out that
satisfaction lies with the needs of the staff, their quality of work life, work environment
with few physical risks, harmonic industrial relations, communication, etc., all result in
good job performance. Now, the chances of development not only lies within the staff,
but is as well with their families, this is a fundamental right that organizations must
recognize, if they want to receive a positive feedback from their staff.
From this interrelation arises a mutual set of expectations: growth, profitability
improvement of quality of life, quality of products or services, low costs, social equity,
development of man and society, etc. The approach stated above helps to explain the
concept of Social Responsibility, oth internally, with personnel, colaborators and the
different sectors they have a relationship with, and externally the aforementioned
stakeholders.
Therefore, Social Responsibility can be defined as "The response that organizations
must give towards the expectations and rights that apply to the various sectors which
Here we must establish another warning to do this epistemological profile as well: Industrial
psychology is based, generally, on its principles, and thus made their explanations of the behavior of
employees, in that current psychological behaviorism known as organizational. It is precisely in that
stream where we can locate authors such as Abraham Maslow, Likert Rensis, Frederick Herzberg,
Douglas McGregor, Leon Festinger, Chris Argyrys, Robert Blake, Jane Mouton, and David McClelland.
Despite its copious bibliographic production, it all controversial from other schools of thought in
psychology.
19

22

they interact with in order to fulfill its social reason" (Fernandez, 1996).
Other circumstances associated with the positioning of the concept of Social
Responsibility, has been the gradual emergence of concern for business ethics by
productive organizations and academics; the delegitimization of the state as a
benefactor and sole responsible for the welfare of the citizens; the power that every day
takes its toll on civil society; the vindication of their rights. These facts, coupled with
the efforts of some academics and researchers, have helped to strengthen this
concept(20)
We are in a historical stage in which nothing is set in stone, the breaking paradigms is
happening increasingly faster and it is necessary for companies and public figures to
become more flexible to the changes that lie ahead.
The survival of the company and the results of its actions, conducted under its Social
Responsibility Programs, will depend on the degree of connection and interdependence
between its business and the social impact that this wants to achieve, this will determin
the bond that will exist between their reason of being of the company and its CSR
objectives.
According to a survey carried out in an International Corporate Social Responsibility
blog (CSRI), conducted by Wayne Visser(21) during the month of October 2011, 44 % of
executives directly related in the fields of Corporate Social Responsibility CSR believed
that these numbers will increase as result of the crisis. Another 26 % believe it will
change, while 22 % think it will weaken.
This is a somewhat surprising result and perhaps hides a more complex response. In
the opinion of this author, the impact of the crisis will vary depending on the type of
CSR that is practiced.
CSR that are focused on philanthropic actions will be affected the most.
Visser explains: "I have little doubt that those who have adopted this immature version
of CSR will suffer significant cuts in its budget for the next recession. Regardless of the
fact that those in need of charity will be more affected by the crisis, companies from
around the world will be forced to cut costs and the philanthropy budgets will be one
of the first to be cut"
Strategic CSR. This will be the least affected.
It is likely that the strategic concept of CSR, by Michael Porter and Mark Kramer, will
most likely pay dividends to its followers in the wake of the financial crisis. Both experts
say that the more closely linked to the social issue this business model is, the greater
Analysis extracted from: The Social Responsibility of Organizations: Competitive advantage factor?,
GALLEGO, Mery (EAFIT University, Medellin)
21 Extract from an article in The Economist, year 2 Number 16, November 2008. The interviewed is the
Director and Founder of CSR International, based in Cambridge, England
20

23

the opportunity to leverage the company to its resources and benefit society.
For example, Coca-Cola's commitment to become a neutral company regarding water
issues, is so closely linked to their main activity, where they cannot afford to abandon
this strategic program of Social Responsibility.
"They know that if they are not perceived as responsible users of scarce water
resources within the communities in which they operate, their business, ultimately, will
fail" (Wayne Visser)
Integrated CSR. CSR can only be strong if it is part of the DNA of an organization.
In other words, CSR will only survive due to the whims of fickled markets, the
fluctuation of the utilities, the financial crises and the leadership cravings if fully
ingrained in the corporate culture and strategy of the governance system.
The impending recession will be the last DNA test for companies. In a few years, we will
have a much clearer idea, of who has impulsed the Social Responsibility in the heart of
their business and who uses this model as a mask. In the national context there are very
few examples of Integrated CSR.
For those companies that are attentive to the opportunities of the revolution of CSR 2.0,
the present recession provides great opportunities for business growth as well as
financial benefits. This is because CSR 2.0 refers to the creation of solutions to the most
pressing and difficult problems in the world such as the water stress and climate
change.
Unlike the past CSR, CSR 2.0 is driven by the wave of sustainability of markets. For
example, the demand for renewable energy sources and low carbon technologies, now
far exceeds supply. And given the rising costs of climate change, high oil prices and
political ambitions, we can see up to an 80% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by
2050, companies have strategically positioned themselves as as providers of clean
technologies and will continue to profit from this 284 million dollars market, which is
expected to grow to over 1.3 billion by 2017. In short, companies are at a turning point
given the social, political and economic current.

24

PART II
A historical, political and social development context
in Bolivia

25

Chapter I
From the Eighteenth Century to the present day
While in the Europe continent, the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution
represented the triggers for the take off into Modern and Postmodern eras, even in
South America battles were fought in the fields in order to obtain freedom from the
hands of the Spanish tyrants.
In August 1824 Bolivar, along with Colonel Manuel Isidoro Suarez, defeated the Spanish
army of General Jose de Canterac, on the fields of Junin. This victory was constituted as
the prelude to the final victory in the Battle of Ayacucho. The head Spaniards, Canterac,
Valdes and La Serna, while meeting in Cuzco, decided to reorganize their forces and go
to meet the victors of Junin.
Sucre, under the instruction of Bolivar the Liberator, continuously campaigned for the
military in Peru and in December 9, 1824, the separatists achieved a spectacular victory
on the fields of Ayacucho. Along with the capitulation of the Viceroy La Serna, the
"independence of Peru and America" had been recognized.
On January 29, 1825 General Jose Miguel Lanza, from nearby commonwealth rural
areas, and took the city of La Paz and declared the provinces of Upper Peru
independent, he was declared its first President. On February 6 Mariscal Sucre, head of
the Liberation Army crossed the Desaguadero River.
After the victory of Ayacucho and following precise instructions from Bolivar, General
Sucre enters high Peruvian territory on February 25, 1825. His role was limited to
adhere a veneer of legality to a process that they had already been launched by patriots.
But the fate of the new Republic was subject to three possibilities, it could continue the
drive itself up into Buenos Aires into the United Provinces; maintain adherence to Peru
recognizing incorporation measures dictated by the Viceroy Abascal as a result of the
revolution of July 16 1809 in La Paz or; support a decision with absolute independence
from Upper Peru, not only in relation to Spain, but also in reference to the United
Provinces of Rio de la Plata and Peru. On August 6, 1825 the Declaration of
Independence, drafted by the President of Congress, Jose Mariano Serrano, was
declared by seven representatives from Charcas, fourteen from Potosi, twelve from La
Paz, thirteen from Cochabamba two from Santa Cruz.
By means of a decree, it was determined that the new state would carry the name of
Bolivar, in honor of the Liberator, who in turn was named "Father of the Republic and
Supreme Head of State". Bolivar thanked and humbled by these honors, however, he
declined the acceptance of the Presidency of the Republic and he designated the
position to General Antonio Jose de Sucre.

26

Institutional Organization
Following the appointment of General Antonio Jose de Sucre as President of the
Republic, who gonerned until 1828, a series of riots occur that forces him to give up the
presidential position. After a few months of political instability, Marshal Andres de
Santa Cruz was appointed president by the National Assembly in the year 1829,
becoming the central figure of the independent period.
During his tenure he created the Peru-Bolivian Confederation in the year 1836, which
extended all the way from the Pacific ocean to the most eastern border that current
Bolivia currently has and was appointed protector for this territory, this caused
resentment with the neighboring country of Chile, and with Peru against Santa Cruz,
which triggered a debouchment into armed action in restorative bell campaigns. The
forces of the governor of Buenos Aires, Juan Manuel de Rosas, also intervened against
the Confederation because it was a safe haven to political opponents, the Unitarians.
Finally, Santa Cruz was defeated in the Battle of Yungay in the year 1839, the year in
which the Confederation was dissolved. Among the most outstanding administrative
actions of those ten years of fruitful Government were: To promote the first codes of
the continent and promote the country among his peers.
After these events took place, there came a period of anarchy in which Jose Miguel de
Velasco seized power among others; , he was the first president who ruled the country
in four different occasions, over the span of twenty years. Jose Ballivian, who ruled until
December 23, 1847, was characterized by maintaining the high prestige of the Republic
and perfected the legal system. With the victory of Ingavi, it consolidated the Bolivian
independence and sovereignty.
New riots, promoted in part by Velasco, who was occupying power for the fourth time,
was contributed to the succession of a series of military governments. The most
important of these is perhaps the populist government of Manuel Isidoro Belzu,
between the years 1848 and 1855. In September of 1857 a revolution gave control to a
civilian president, Jose Maria Linares Lizarazu whose government reduced the power
of the army to not incubate new revolutions. He also innovated the judicial and
administrative organization. In the year 1859 the first map of Bolivia was published,
drawn by Mr. Lucio Camacho, and based on data provided by the General Mariano Mejia
and Juan Ondarza. Linares was overthrown by a coup in 1861 and was succeeded by
Jose Maria Acha, a member of the triumvirate that headed the conspiracy in the first
place. He dictated the Print Law, he implanted the postal service with using of stamps,
founded the population of Rurrenabaque, and finally, due to a military coup in the year
1864, was overthrown and succeeded by Mariano Melgarejo, whose government had
highly negative consequences for the country. Arbitrary and unreasonable provisions
determined drawbacks agreements with Brazil and Chile, causing the loss of large
teritorial areas of Bolivia.
In 1879 the Pacific War was unleashed that pitted Chile against a Bolivian and Peruvian
coallitian. The conflict was caused by the interests of guano and saltpeter exploitation,
27

so it is also known as the Saltpeter War. As a result, Bolivia lost the only outlet to the
sea losing the possession of the Antofagasta region into Chilean hands. Peru suffered
the loss of Tarapaca and Arica.
In 1880 Narciso Campero was appointed President. A long democratic stable period
began called "From the oligarchy to the conservative-liberal", they supported
themselves on the economy on first southern silver ore, centered in Sucre, and then in
the mining of tin, which was still centered in Oruro -La Paz. He was succeeded by
Gregorio Pacheco in 1884 (a longtime philanthropic President) and Aniceto Arce, in
1888. During the administration of Arce, he began to operate the country's first public
railway.
Liberals defeated the Conservatives in the so-called Civil War or also known as the
Federal War in 1898, led by Colonel Jose Manuel Pando who also assumed power in that
year, it was then that he moved the seat of the President of the Republic from Sucre to
La Paz. During this time, the era of tin took off, which replaced silver as the main foreign
exchange earner, producing a dramatic change in the Bolivian economy. The
outstanding figure of the time was Simon I. Patio, a tin miner who became one the
richest and most powerful men in the world.
With Pando a "liberal period" was spawned from the years of 1899-1920 in which there
were several democratically elected governments, the most important being that of
Ismael Montes (1904-1909 and 1913-1917).
With the ephemeral elastic rubber boom in full effect through the years of 1903-1904,
it led to a conflict with Brazil over the domain of the Beni-Pando axis, a major producer
of said material. After the War of Acre, Brazil bordering region of 355,242 km2 of
extension, on November 7, 1903 the Treaty of Petropolis was signed which granted the
neighboring country that entire area in conflict. Additionally, in 1904 Bolivia signed a
peace treaty with Chile, by which they granted the territories gained during the War of
the Pacific in exchange for the construction of the Arica-La Paz railway. An agreement
that was never fulfilled by Chile.
Since 1930 the country lived again in periods of internal animosity. That year, a
revolution overthrew President Hernando Siles, who had governed since 1926, this
happened without calling into session the national legislature that was trying to extend
his mandate. Daniel Salamanca, elected president in 1931, was overthrown in 1934 by
a group led by his own vice president Jose Luis Tejada Sorzano, also a government that
was overthrown by a military coup led by Colonel David Toro, who attempted
desperately to bring the country out of the situation in which it was in as a result of the
global recession and the Chaco conflict engaged with Paraguay. However, Toro ws
surrounded by military enemies and in 1937 he was overthrown by a group headed by
Lieutenant Colonel German Busch Becerra, his Chief of Staff.
In 1938 a new Constitution was approved however, Busch abolished it a year later and
imposed a dictatorial government. Four months into his dictatorship, he was found
dead due to a gunshot. Then came the presidency of General Carlos Quintanilla, who
28

restored the validity of the Constitution of 1938 and determined that the Army was to
exercise the complete control of the country until the holding of new elections.
In 1940 President General Enrique Penaranda was elected, who on April 7, 1943, while
the Second World War was undergoing, declared war on the Axis countries. In
December of 1943, he was overthrown by a civil-military insurrection led by militant
Gualberto Villarroel who, a year later, became president of the country constitutionally
supported by the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR), the party had
sympathizers within which Axis and by the Workers Revolutionary Party. However, and
due to economic pressure, the new government was forced to maintain good relations
with the allied forces. In July 1946, Villarroel was overthrown and lynched in La Paz.
In 1947 the Conservatives returned to power. Enrique Hertzog's government
continually endured opposition parties from the right and the left. In the early 1950s
the Communist Party was outlawed. Hertzog resigned and Mamerto Urriolagoitia
succeeded him in power.
Contemporary Age
In April of 1952 a revolution broke out organized by the Nationalist Revolutionary
Movement founded in 1941 by Victor Paz Estenssoro, which brought intellectual
radicals of the middle class rose in power during the Villarroel government (19431946) when they joined the vast majority of mining unions led by the leader John Lechn
Oquendo.
After bloody struggles led by the MNR deputy chief Hernan Siles, Paz Estenssoro
returned from exile in Buenos Aires and took over the presidency. The new government
immediately began to change the structure of the previous regime, established a
monopoly on the export of tin and nationalized the mines, formerly in the hands of three
powerful families; he also encouraged a policy allowing the realization of oil
exploitation and its export to foreign companies.
With the agricultural reform, enacted in August 1953, the country proceeded to land
parcelacion distributing large amounts to the Indiginous popultation in the course of
the following years.
In August 1956 Hernan Siles Zuazo became president, who as vice president had
accompanied Paz Estenssoro through his government period. During his presidential
term he was initially devoted to the task of reorganizing the economy and stabilize the
currency. It was just a fraction of what was supposed to be accomplished into his third
year of government therefore he had to face permanent opposition led by the Bolivian
Socialist Phalanx (FSB). After a failed coup attempt in 1959, Oscar Unzaga de la Vega,
leader of FSB, died.
In 1960 Paz Estenssoro was elected for a second time as President and in August 1964,
he was elected again.
29

Shortly thereafter, on November 5, he was overthrown by a military coup led by his vice
president, General Ren Barrientos.
The military government held conservative economic policy reforms, such as the
reopening of the tin mining industry to private foreign investors. In July of 1966 Ren
Barrientos was elected President, this time as a civilian. However, he was forced to rely
on the military to confront the guerrilla movements that had begun to act up in the
mountainous regions. In October of 1967 the Bolivian Army announced having defeated
the rebels in a village next to Vallegrande. Ernesto Che Guevara had been captured on
the battlefield and was executed shortly after.
Barrientos died in a strange helicopter crash in April 1969. Various people succeeded
in power in a series of short-lived government rules, most of them military in nature
until in August 1971, General Juan Jose Torres was overthrown in a coup led by Colonel
Hugo Banzer. The Banzer regime changed course quickly, from a relatively moderate
position to one of great repression. He suppressed the labor movement, suspended all
civil rights and sent troops to the mining centers. In 1978, Banzer resigned and a
military council took power. In the early 1980s the strong economic due to the growth
of the previous decade had been sustained by the high price of tin in the world market,
this led to crisis. The fall in the price of mineral and themismanagement of the military
regimes had left Bolivia with a huge debt, a hyperinflationary situation and a situation
of declining export earnings. The illegal export of cocaine was the main resource that
would provide curreny, until the United States pressured the Government of Bolivia to
take effective measures against the trafficking of this drug.
Facing racial and cultural issues, Bolivia had already dealt with revolutions and military
coups. By the beginning of the decade if the 80s, the last military council that ruled the
country was overthrown in order to reinstate a democratic form of government.
In October 1982, Hernn Siles Zuazo again took possession of the presidency. He was
faced with several ministerial crisis and was unable to solve the economic problems of
the country due to interest payments on foreign debt to international banks. Siles
resigned and called elections early, Congress returned to reclaim Paz Estenssoro as
President. In his new government he attempted to cut the production of coca and the
sale of cocaine with the collaboration of U.S. troops, sadly, this measure, besides being
unpopular, only obtained partial success.
The main achievement that Paz Estenssoro accomplished was a new economic policy
that stopped hyperinflation that was around 27000% at the time, between January and
August of 1985 this was exported to other countries in America. Jaime Paz Zamora, who
had been the third most voted candidate in the May 1989 elections, assumed the
presidency in August for the country after receiving the support of the Nationalist
Democratic Action (ADN), right-wing political group.
The following elections in June of 1993 were won by mining entrepreneur Gonzalo
Sanchez de Lozada, who assumed the presidency, while the Aymara leader Victor Hugo
Cardenas agreed to be his vice president. Also in the congressional elections, MNR won
30

the majority vote, replacing the center-left coalition who were until then in power.
Lozada, who had been a minister of Planning and Coordination, before his election as
President, introduced some of the most severe measures of economic reform put into
practice by heavily indebted countries: An extensive privatization of state enterprises,
the reduction of social service expenses and education programs and the closure of
many mines. The strict control of government spending helped reduce inflation to 6.5%
in 1995, but the social costs were very high. His government program called the
"People's Plan" consisted of the capitalization, popular participation, education reform
and administrative decentralization.
In the presidential elections of June 1997 former President Victor Hugo Banzer turned
out to be the victor, who, without an absolute majority of votes, initially received
support from former President Jaime Paz Zamora and his Leftist Revolutionary
Movement (MIR) and this way, Zamora, returned the favor to Banzer, for supporting,
his causes with their Nationalist Democratic Action (ADN) members of parliament,
during the governance of the country under his tenure. In June of 1999, Banzer had to
replace half of the members of his government after a serious scandal came to light
when that same month the unexpected resignation of Interior Minister Guido Nayar
ocurred, who criticized the corruption and inefficiency of that government. The
President decreed, on April 8, 2000, a state of siege, in order to stop the wave of protests
that took place in Cochabamba but could not hold, with this measure, a violent social
upheaval caused by extreme poverty and indigenous peasants, not until six days later,
did he sign a series of agreements with the union representatives of these
organizations.
On the 20th of that month, four days before his government members presented their
full resignation, Banzer suspended the siege. He appointed a new cabinet on April 25th,
but on October 19th he had to watch again, as his Government was presented with a
resignation block because of the social crisis the country had been experiencing since
September, characterized by strikes, roadblocks and clashes with military forces
(particularly in the departments of La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz), with the
participation of Indigenous movements and certain unions who were defending the
right of peasants to grow coca and those who opposed the anti-government intentions
to eradicate and replace it with other products.
Suffering from lung cancer, Banzer resigned the presidency on August 6, 2001 replaced
by Vice President Jorge Quiroga. He remained in government until August 6, 2002 by
completing the five years for which he Banzer had been elected. His successor was
Sanchez de Lozada, whose candidacy for the MNR was the most voted in the
presidential election held on the 30th of June of that same year. Upon receiving only
22,5 % of the vote (compared to 20,94 % of Evo Morales, indigenous leader of the
Movement Toward Socialism, MAS; to 20,91 % of Manfred Reyes Villa of the New
Republican Force candidate NFR, and 16,3 % of Jaime Paz Zamora, again, represented
by MIR), Sanchez de Lozada appointmented the new National Congress (whose
members were elected that same day). They competed with Morales and won, thanks
to the vote of its parliament and from members of other parties, mainly the MIR party.
31

Sanchez de Lozada and Paz Zamora sealed the "National Responsibility Plan for
Bolivia", a governability pact between the two formations, based on a policy which
would have the main ideal to create jobs and generate wealth.
After the Presidental announcement, in February of 2003, a series of unpopular
economic measures, including a new tax on wages that generated protests across the
country. Sanchez de Lozada withdrew his project, but the crisis triggered a series of
violent incidents, demanding the resignation of all members of his government. In the
month of August towards the end of the crisis that the country had lived through,
Sanchez de Lozada came to an agreement with opposition party the NFR, which entered
into the executive branch. The government's plan was to fund health and education
projects, with the benefits of natural gas exports, this generated more unhappy people
mainly because of the possibility that the route of the product is transited through a
Chilean port, so, in September and October of 2003 new demonstrations took place,
promoted by the Bolivian Workers Center (COB) and the Single Trade Union
Confederation of Peasant Workers of Bolivia, to call an indefinite general strike. The
popular movement was also catalyzed by the MAS and the Indigenous Movement
Pachakuti. The revolt spread to the major cities of the country (La Paz and El Alto were
even militarized by the Government). The climate that the country was living was pure
insurrection. Given this situation, which produced discord in the Executive Branch,
Sanchez de Lozada resigned on October 17th. He was replaced by Vice President Carlos
D. Mesa, who formed a cabinet of politicians who did not belong to any party, with the
intention of ending the conflict and achieve national reconciliation. Shortly after his
inauguration, Mesa pledged to hold a referendum in which Bolivians should rule on the
question of the export of natural gas. Because almost no political support, Carlos Mesa
resigned under pressure from serious social unrest, assuming the presidency,
unexpectedly, the then president of the Supreme Court, Eduardo Rodriguez Veltze, who
pledged to exert a transitional government, calling elections on January 22, 2006.
The New Political Constitution of the State
Evo Morales assumed office on January 22, 2006, becoming the first Bolivian president
to be elected by an absolute majority (with 54 % of the vote in the general presidential
election), in turn, was declared as the first indigenous president of the nation.
In July of that year, elections were held to elect representatives to an assembly; the
autonomic proposal conducted an internal deadlock in the Constituent Assembly. All
these disunions led to stress the political situation between East and West hemispheres
of the country. When the Bolivian political scenario seemed to be lessen in trouble, a
controversial proposal was added to the autonomic proposal for the Constituent
Assembly to consider, as the city of Sucre (Bolivia's capital with only one state of power
constituted) asked the other two branches of government, located in La Paz (chair of
government), to be moved to Sucre. This political controversy, led to a temporary halt
in the Constituent Assembly sessions. However, the Vice President of the Republic was
ready to be the mediator between the two political forces. While he achieved an
agreement between the stagnated politicians, he drew up a document that could not
32

demand satisfaction from the city of Sucre.

Present
With the New Political Constitution of the Bolivian State, which was passed in 2009,
motivated by the Constituent Assembly, the passage from Republic to State is to
seperate by notable conceptual differences, they still not seize to be important. For
Bolivia, this transformation represented a change of viewpoint and approach properly
Constitutional and derives towards all the areas throughout the country. We are then
in a paradigmatic rupture of development due to the new role of the State in life of the
country.
The etymological root of the term Republic tells us to a "public thing" or "thing of the
people". Similarly, current doctrine teaches us that the State is a political society, whose
population is organized legally over sovereign territory.
To understand the difference, beyond mere concepts, I turn to a brief interesting
explaination created by Gerardo Garcia Valdivia on his blog(22).
Republic is Object, State is subject;
Republic is Thing, State is Person;
Republic is Static, State is Dynamic
Republic is Individualistic, State is Community
The Republic is a thing that belongs to the people, its something that can be grasped
and belongs to a village, it is the subject of the ambitions, determinations and decisions
of the people. The Republic is everybodys and nobodys at the same time. It does not
suppose a dynamic element, however, it is a static situation or condition over time,
permanent and perennial.
Quite the contrary, a State does not mean something, but rather someone, a person, a
subject can exercise rights and obligations, a living being can be born, develop and die
course. A person who has interests and goals in life, a system with coordinated
conformational parts can as a whole look for the attainment of a common goal. A set of
articulated parts that work in sync in order to achieve the common good of all citizens.
It in this context, that Social Responsibility rests upon, on a scenario for its execution,
taking into account the joint work that must be developed by the Government, the
private sector, universities, NGOs and the civil population.
While in a Republic, as stated, the protagonist of the scenario that results from this is
the man, both in their community and in their individuality.
In a state man is diluted within the upper part of that characterization. In this final
22

http://puntodevistayopinion.blogspot.com/2009/06/estado-o-republica.html

33

scenario, the human being, gives way to the subject supra ut, the State.
However, the peculiarity of Bolivia makes that State, such as a gender, entered into in
the multinational specimen. A Plurinational State whose corollary is the condition of
communitarianism. Based on the foregoing, it can be postulated, therefore, that Bolivia
as a Plurinational State, is a subject of global scope, that recognizes diversity of nations
that comprise it, bringing them all together under the mantle of a community(23)
The Plurinational State of Bolivia is located in the center of South America, on a
territorial extension of 1 098 581 square kilometers, between the Andes and the
tropical plains of the Amazon. The country has a population of 10 389 903 (2012
census), which reflects a population growth of 2.1 million compared to the 8 274 325
of people who inhabited the country according to the 2001 Census, these figures show
a low population density of 9.9 inhabitants per square kilometer. The reparticion of
population within Bolivia's territory is uneven, due to migration from rural to urban
areas. 67 % of the population lives in urban areas and more than 70 % live in the
departments of Santa Cruz, La Paz and Cochabamba.

Social science doctoral thesis: "The importance of knowledge management in the civil service of the
race of the chamber of senators for organizational learning", Moyado Socorro
23

34

Chapter II
An historical record of CSR in the Constitutions of Bolivia
Already in the Political Constitution of 1826, CSR was established in very basic ways for
the country:
Article 150. - Everyone can communicate their thoughts orally or in writing, and
are able publishing them through print, without prior censorship, but under the
responsibility established by law.
Article 155. - No kind of work, industry or commerce may be prohibited, unless
it opposes the public customs, security, or the health of Bolivians.
It's amazing how, from the Constitution, things changed for the countrymen even after
156 years after the Revolution of 1952.
Article 11: Everyone is Bolivian all until the day have been slaves and therefore
remain free of rights, in the act of publishing the Constitution, but they will not
leave the house of their former lords, but in the way that is determined by special
law.
The Charter for Human Rights was included and established in the Constitution of 2004,
being Bolivia one of the few nations in the world to contain this effort.
o Article 1. - Role of State and Form of Government
I.
Bolivia, free, independent, sovereign, multiethnic and multicultural, formed in a
unitary Republic, adopts the representative democratic form of government
founded on the union and solidarity of all Bolivians.
II.
It is a Social and Democratic State of Rights that sustains freedom, equality and
justice as superior values of its legal system.
o Art. 5 - Prohibition of servitude and slavery. Not recognized by any genre of
servitude and no one can be obligated to render personal services without full
consent and fair remuneration. Personal services may be demanded only when
so provided by law.
o Article 7: Fundamental rights
Everyone has the following fundamental rights, under the laws that regulate their
exercise:
a) To life, health and safety;
b) To freely express their ideas and opinions, by any means of dissemination;
c) To assemble and associate for lawful purposes;
d) To work and engage in commerce, industry or any lawful activity, under
conditions that do not harm the collective good
e) To receive instruction and acquire culture
f) To teach under the supervision of the State
g) To enter, remain in, travel and leave the country
h) To formulate petitions individually or collectively
i) To private property, individually or collectively, provided it fulfills a social
function
j) To a fair remuneration for their work, which will provide for himself and his
family in an existence worthy of a human
35

k) To social security, as determined by this Constitution and by law

36

Part III
Fundamental aspects to the practice of Corporate
Social Responsibility in a Bolivian context

37

Chapter I
The territoriality
Territoriality refers to the existence of a defined geographical and geopolitical entity,
the modern State occupies a physical space clearly defined. A territory is the field of
competance, within which develops powerful relations between its governors and its
governed, without this there is no scope for competition in the exercise of political
power. Upon this territory legitimate authority is exercised therefore a modern State
will selfishly defend its territorial integrity. A territory is, by nature, is part of a system.
However, this does not mean that States are permanently in one place in the world. The
States borders can change and be redeployed.
The concept of territoriality, in an objective sense, meaning that there are changes
within the interior of the territory, as a new central government needs fast means of
communication. It is also important to consider the geopolitical location of the territory,
it is indisputable that modern politics depends on geography, so, this is what
determines the natural resources of a country, in that way, a country that has few
natural resources is more likely to be constantly engaged in political conflict, for this
reason, it may not have a democratic political development like other countries that
have more resources. Furthermore, the geographical influence was a central factor in
the initiation of the Second World War. Vital Space doctrine, championed by Germany,
is the main justification for the invasion for Europe, Asia, and Africa; development
determinants and the leap from the Modern Age to the Contemporary Age.
Loinger Guy mentions, since the spirit to be requires its body, also, every creative act
of man needs of a society to emerge, to exist. Then, a society is not an abstraction, but
rather full, to its edges, qualities and sensitivities. "Places, addresses, sensitive
universes, palpable, of glances, to caress the spirit and body, colors and smells,
perceptions and sensations. The territory is all of that, and the territoriality expresses
the living practices in and for the territories"(24)
According Loinger, territory is not a concept, neither an objective framework for social,
cultural or historical phenomenas, but rather, "a very special phenomenon that results
in making the invisible visible which is produced by a society, for generations, through
social practices of its inhabitants, the historical relationship of a society with its space
at a time and in a given context ", ie, in a culture(25)
According to this statement, territory is part and parcel of the human condition and
thus, "as it has been said, insinuating other dimensions that also belong it-in the same
way, historicity, spirituality, circumstantial are typical of the territorial condition,
condition that occurs simultaneously and in harmony with the others"(26). Therefore,
Paper, "Towards a systemic interpretation of the territory", presented at the First Latin American
Congress of Anthropology, Rosario (Argentina) 2005, as a result of the "Territory and sustainability",
funded by the Directorate of Research of the University of Lagos
25 Men and environments: Notes for a metaphysics of the territory. VERGARA, Nelson
26 Jimmy Lemus, Cunapa Foundation, 2011
24

38

Loinger adds, "the territoriality of a territory, is what makes sense of a territory. This
territory is the product of a society in a given time. But this territoriality is earned, is
warranted, it is cultivated as a garden is grown. It is a society made, over centuries and
long-term cycles. "So, it is this strong bond with expectations, doubts, human values
that identify the more intrinsic condition of the territory: Being an open scope, enabler
or inhibitor of the projects of man in any of the ways that have been poined out earlier.
Boisier, according to the degree and complexity of human occupation and the presence
in them, distinguishes between natural territories, equipped and organized. But in all
these cases, there is something that determines the essential: the territory is not, but in
reference to man, in a relationship that is, as I pointed out, a strict correlation and
fundamentally, a correlation of senses actual or alleged, imaginary or virtual. There is
no rootless human life, says Boisier. In this sense, we can point out, that being a territory
is an event and that it is a world which in turn is part of other worlds and that, as such,
is articulated with them.
"It is not excluded. It is not a portion of land or environment, but a glimpse of worlds
intertwained and placed in a culture, with all its levels, or sublevel layers of meaning.
Thus, when man marks or demarcates a territory, it doesnt mark or unmark an
objective territory, in the classical sense of independence, but "their" territory, more or
less, according to the representation and consciousness of the horizons in their daily,
personal or collective worlds. From here on out, the strong connection of territory with
identity, personal or collective, and its manifestation in the memory and the
imagination"(27)
Therefore, it is not territory which makes the identity, but the nationality of one- a
supraterritorial instance - to which the territory is functional, a feeling that manages to
articulate the physical with the intangible, aspirations of being to becoming, a
suprasensorial encounter. Arbitrary fact, paradoxical, as the modern intention to create
man regardless of territorial ties(28)
Enrique Leff, says that "due to globalization process, governed by economic rationality
and market laws, joined by "globalfobe" movements, is emerging a policy of place, space
IRIARTE, Gregorio, "Globalization, neoliberalism and postmodernism", 2008
Preamble of the Political Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia
In ancient times mountains were erected, rivers moved, lakes formed. Our Amazon, our Chaco, our
highlands and our plains and valleys were covered with greenery and flowers. We populate this sacred
Mother Earth with different faces, and since then the plurality understood force of all things and beings
our diversity and cultures.
Related articles of the Political Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia
Article 2:
Given the precolonial existence of nations and indigenous peoples native peasants and their ancestral
domain over their territories, ensuring their self-determination within the framework of the unity of the
state, which is their right to autonomy, self-government, their culture, recognition of their institutions
and the consolidation of its territorial units, in accordance with this Constitution and the law.
Article 3:
The Bolivian nation is formed by all the Bolivians, nations and indigenous peoples native peasants, and
intercultural and Afro-Bolivian communities that together constitute the Bolivian people.
27
28

39

and time mobilized by the new rights to the cultural identity of people, legitimizing
more pluralistic and democratic rules of social coexistence". And Leff, reiterates what
we already discovered within the Boisier references, namely, that "a policy of the place
and the difference is being built from the sense of time in current struggles for identity,
for autonomy and territory". Just like Boisier, Leff is categorical in stating that the
instrumental rationality of modernity, that is now in crisis, leads not only to profound
changes in this or that sector of reality, but rather everyone agrees that it is a crisis of
civilization expressed in terms of environmental crisis. The return to the local and the
revaluation of the territory as a structural instance of life is, then, one of the
fundamental effects of this generating environmental crisis, in his opinion, of the need
to create a new type of knowledge that, unlike modern scientific knowledge, and not
founded on the certitudes and drying procedural requirements of certainty, but rather
the imperative to recognize the value of not knowing, of uncertainty, indeterminacy and
irrationality in the construction of life. This ss environmental knowledge(29)
In this scenario, it is essential to design the actions of the Companies facing a specific
territory, hihglighting that this may be intentional and planned from specific interests
of the people involved, and mediated by the approaches that take place in a historical
moment and in a given context, the variables that are being described are the effects
occurring in the territory (positive or negative) by the portrayal of the company and its
impact on local development.
Globalization, on an economic and financial level, presents, from a humanistic
perspective, three aspects that are totally unacceptable:
The capitals are invested even more in the financial circle rather in the
production. That it will generate more dividends, in the current model, the
speculation rather tan that of production.
The model enriches some and impoverishes others. It enriches a few rich and
further impoverishes the poorest. It creates wealth that heads upward, where
concentrated control is left in the hands of few and generates poverty
downwards in large majorities. And, in most serious circumstances, is that there
is a direct causal relationship between poverty and wealth. That is the reason
Related articles of the Political Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia
Article 33
People have a right to a healthy, protected and balanced environment. The exercise of this right is to
allow individuals and groups of present and future generations, in addition to other living beings, develop
normally and permanently.
Article 34
Any person, individually or in a representation of a community is empowered to take legal action in
defense of the right to the environment, without prejudice to the obligation of public institutions to act
on its own against the attacks on the environment.
Article 270
The principles governing the territorial organization and autonomous decentralized territorial entities
are: unity, voluntarism, solidarity, equality, common good, self-government, equality, complementarity,
reciprocity, gender equity, subsidiarity, graduality, coordination and institutional loyalty, transparency,
participation and social control, provision of economic resources and pre-existence of nations and
indigenous peoples native peasants, in the terms set out in this Constitution.
29

40

for the wealth of a few, increasingly rich as time goes by, is in the poverty of the
poor: But poor in number and condition.
Process automation and robotization is eliminating the proportion of raw
material progressively in industrial products and the value of the product is
linked more and more, to the insertion of top of the line technologies, which are
not necessarily the most ecological or with less environmental impact. In the
other hand, the economic growth that it generates, does not create jobs or does
it in insufficient proportions(30)

Territorial is understood beyond the physical and involves social and cultural relations;
it is defined as a dynamic and complex notion as always unfinished and works as a
container frame in the evolution of relationships, internal and external exchanges from
various sources, contexts, protagonists and time that it restructures. In turn, the
company is seen as an open system that affects and is affected by the interrelationships
that exist in the global and the local parameters and are affecting the different dynamics
of its performance. The effects in the territory refer to the social, cultural,
environmental and socioeconomic impacts, a product of the actions of the Company. In
the other hand, it is essential to mention the territorial planning, based on an exchange
of information, first as how the company conceives territorial development
(development of focus and vision) and how manifests its actions in the areas defines
and influences, secondly, to highlight how the company establishes ties with various
local and national plans in the planning of the territory, and as these reinforce the
political and business programs(31)
Facing the globalization phenomenon, it would seem that everything would absorb and
master, emerges as an answering counterpart, a movement, still nascent, but with
global features, which has been called glocalization. It is a neologism composed of two
terms: Global and Local, which is a social phenomenon that points out that
manifestation of itself in all places, but with intensity and with somewhat different
characteristics.
Much has been written about global and local levels, including the phenomenon of
globalization has been come to be called glocalization, for the counter position that has
local versus global, or, by the local balance to assure a sglobal world. Communications
and telecommunications have shrunk the world, they have made it smaller, more
convenient, more manageable to cover distances in space that have been trimmed for
speed, and can be available in less time, every day it is less.
Faced with globalization, borders are now lost and blurred, the sense of identity is
blurrysome as well. But, humankind is a being rooted towards land, one or the other
was once a nomad, but the vast majority was, rather, sedentary. In this transformation,
from sedentary man to nomad man, the city came to play its biggest role in territorial
IRIARTE, Gregorio, "Globalization, neoliberalism and postmodernism", 2008
RIOS, Olga. Corporate Social Responsibility in hydroelectric projects in operation, University of
Antioquia, 2005
30
31

41

identity. Humankind needs to feel something, he needs to belong to something and it is

in the city where he can find the best sedentary coverage he may need. That is, local
identity is urban and global can be seen and even assimilated from a stable urban
positioning.
The city, as well, allows the practice of identity promiscuity, it is a feeling of belonging
to more than the city, "the city where I was born", "the city where I lived", "the city
where I worked", they all become "my citys" and identification with each of them
makes it impossible to choose one over the other, in the same way that a child cannot
decide if he wants to be more with his father or his mother(32)
Nothing of the real is isolated, says Morin. Nothing is simple or elementary. Nothing is
fully and completely autonomous. All of reality is presented as a system of relations
that, in all truthfulness, are interactions of various kinds, which make up the realities of
complex issues. A thought attempting to reach them can not be, therefore, a reducing
thought, while looking for what is simple. We must, therefore, according to Morins
claims, change not only our thoughts, but also the very principles of our thinking, which
involves overcoming the limits of analytical thought.
From the mentioned above, the question of territory is framed in a system of references
and interconnections, which, is clearly summarized in the notes that Leff has
determined.
a) In the first place, the territory is a place, a social space where social actors exert
their power to control environmental degradation and to mobilize potential
environmental self-managed projects, generated to satisfy the needs,
aspirations and desires of the people that global economics can not meet;
b) Secondly, the country is viewed as the local level where cultural identities are
forged and, therefore, is the place where you build and rebuild the worlds of life,
emerging space of positive synergies in environmental soundness and a new
eco-technological paradigm;
c) Third, and most importantly, the territory is a space where different times rush,
where cultural identities and ecological potentials are articulated.

32

Javier Llinares, http://www.javierllinares.es/?p=627, April 2008

42

Chapter II
The theory of Social Coresponsibility
Technological change, business cooperation and universities have taken off in recent
times. The competitiveness in business and the need for partnerships in order to
achieve greater participation in both the marketplace and the creation of sources of
innovation, causing a new projection of the same university for research and
development of a country.
The articulation of the various stakeholders needed to exchange knowledge,
expectations, visions and experiences within a territory, come together in what is being
developed in many regions of the world as the triple alliance or triple spiral (for his
translation from English "Triple Helix"), which is nothing more than the sum of efforts
between government, the private sector and the Academy.
It was not until the mid-nineties, where talking started massively to promote the
importance of dynamic interactions between these three sectors and to access the
innovation and economic development of societies.
The study between State University and Company is analyzed as a model proposed by
Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff (1997) in an analogy to the Double Helix, used in molecular
biology, but in contrast to this, the Triple Helix is unstable because it has dynamic
exchanges between each of its components. Applied to Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR): Government, Business and University regenerate innovative elements that
restructure functions directed towards development.
This model recovers the role of the university as a cradle of knowledge that plays a
major role in the company and government relationship and develops innovation in
organizations for the progress of a region. The triple helix determines an intellectual
process oriented display the evolution of the relationship between University and
Society and, therefore, characterized by the intervention of the University in economic
and social processes(33)
Related articles of the Political Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia
Article 306:
I. The Bolivian economic model is plural and is aimed at improving the quality of life and well living of
all Bolivians.
II. The economy is made up of plural forms of economic organization, community, state, private and
social cooperativeness.
III. The plural economy articulates different forms of economic organization on
principles of complementarity, reciprocity, solidarity, redistribution, equality, legal security,
sustainability, balance, fairness and transparency. The social economy and community complement the
individual interest group living well.
IV. The forms of economic organization recognized in this Constitution will be able to form joint
ventures.
V. The state has the maximum value and ensure human development through equitable redistribution
of economic surplus in social policy, health, education, culture, and reinvestment in productive
economic development.
33

43

The Triple Helix model, and its implications, have received much attention in the West
as a means to promote economic growth, primarily in emerging economies such as
South Africa, Asia and Latin America. It allows an entailment between disciplines and
knowledge, where the strategic role of the University is the basis for generating
relations with the Company. One of the objectives of the Triple Helix is the search for a
model that reflects the complexity of the concept of entailment, taking into account the
environment in which relations amogst their agents are founded.
Over the last 60 years Bolivia has developed an inclusive culture based on a community
system in their decision making. The old linear model, and "desktop" project planning
has been gradually replaced by a participatory process in which project beneficiaries
(whether social, productive, educational, health or other) are involved from the stage
of formulation, fostering a sense of belonging and local empowerment.
Considering this, the triple helix model falls short, because it does not take into account
the community as an advocate of development.
In project management, it is very important to define who is the subject and who the
object. Similarly, for the CSR activities of the Triple Helix model, it focuses all its
attention on the alliance, and sets a target of coordinating the work of the three actors,
which I consider wrong, and that is decoupled from its reason for being. The main
objective of any social action should be the fight against poverty, especially extreme
poverty, improving the living conditions of families in need in a given territory. When
we declare as the center of all action to the community, what we are saying, is that
without this element a model of sustainable development does not and will exist.
One of the main criticisms made to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was its
global and national level definition, ignoring the "urban", "local" or even "rural
dimension. Many of the national reports on the MDGs do not report about the situation
of urban areas or sub-national ones. In addition, the strong processes of
decentralization lived in the country manifest that many of the scopes to which the
MDGs are revolving only reach municipal jurisdiction, which means that the MDGs will
not be able to be achieved if they do not get involved in the process to authorities and
local communities.

Article 308:
I. The State recognizes, respects and protects private initiative to contribute to economic development,
social and strengthen the country's economic independence.
II. It guarantees freedom of enterprise and the full exercise of business activities, which will be
regulated by law.
Article 312:
I. All economic activity should contribute to strengthening the country's economic sovereignty. Do not
allow the private accumulation of economic power to an extent that endangers the economic
sovereignty of the state.
II. All forms of economic organization have the obligation to create decent work and contribute to the
reduction of inequalities and poverty eradication.
V. All forms of economic organization have the obligation to protect the environment.

44

The systematic way of invisiblizing and undermining local issues comes from our
colonial heritage. The Spanish conquest pretended to eliminate community support
systems much like the ayni, the barter system or the minka in order to deconstruct
society and erase it from the collective memory of ancestral practices of self-help and
community-management, social and solidarity management models. In its place was
paternalism and dependency widely promoted depending on assistance from foreign
sources, which later had more strength with international cooperation and the Marshall
Plan. It's just another story of the countries of the North, who head the most supportive
countries lists each year due to its Anglo-Saxon past. The French and British conquerors
were from not only long humanist tradition, but had another worldview of solidarity,
this meant that developed countries considered donations, aid and volunteerism as
fundamental principles for its development.
International cooperations and NGOs have learned from their mistakes and have
realized that welfarism generates nothing leaves nothing. They have begun to use
business management tools: Measurement indicators to level performance and impact
assessments, planning and monitoring, process engineering, structuring and
restructuring, business model identification and feasibility, among others. Companies
that encouraged to make CSR in Bolivia still do testing, and motivating themselves back
to welfarism under the disguise of corporate philanthropy. The same families, who
were accustomed to receive benefits "for free" from the international cooperation, now
make continuos lines in order to receive the same from companies.
Therefore, it is important to redefine the CSR protagonists in a new model
contextualized in Bolivian reality. Clover patterns consist of the following elements:
Company: A legal organized person or economic group, individual or collective, small
and medium enterprises, partnerships, cooperatives, private, state or mixed.
Academy: Understood as an all training and qualification center that generates
intellectual development. Referring to public or private universities, in turn, expands
the innovation and entrepreneurship at colleges, schools and institutes.
Government: The State in all its levels of government: national, state, departmental, and
municipal.
Community: Made up of a center of all actions of the social and CSR projects. Not just
represented by civil society, but also by social movements, churches and foundations
that promote development. For this element to set the sustainability of social actions,
participation must be strengthened through a system of counterparts. The
counterweight that does not create dependency is "Social Stewardship Community." To
avoid falling into a vicious circle of a donor/benefactor and beneficiary/beggar
community, people involved should begin to be seen as protagonists receptors, in turn,
give something in return: Their time, knowledge, will, workforce and participation.
We note in Figure 1 that the clover model arise other connections:
45

Between Academy and Business innovation is born, it is precisely the business sector the
largest source of funding for entrepreneurship projects with students and researchers,
creators of future business.
Between Government and Academy. The Government has the power to establish the
conditions for new laws that promote important incentives for science and research
studies center to design technology projects of magnitude and importance to the
country(34)
Between Community and Government. In our context, participation and social control
are vital to the balance of the democratic system. The Government must ensure public
participation spaces and allows empowerment of social groups, mainly the
underprivileged.
Between Business and Community. It is the approach of business and industry to
generate decent employment and working conditions that respect human rights, the
fight against child exploitation and preferential hiring disadvantaged groups of society.

Related articles of the Political Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia

Article 77:
I. The education is a supreme function first financial responsibility of the state, which has the inescapable
obligation to sustain, guarantee it and manage it.
Article 80:
I. Education shall be aimed to the integral formation of individuals and strengthening critical social
consciousness in life and for life. The education will be geared to the individual and collective training,
the development of competencies, skills and physical and intellectual abilities to link theory with
productive practice to the conservation and protection of the environment, biodiversity and land for
living well. Its regulation and compliance will be established by law.
Article 91:
II. Higher education is intracultural, intercultural and multilingual, and has the role the integral formation
of human resources with high qualification and professional skills, develop scientific research processes
to solve problems of the productive base and its social environment policies promote extension and
social interaction to strengthen scientific diversity, cultural and linguistic participate with his people in
all processes of social liberation, to build a society with greater equity and social justice
Article 102:
II. The government, universities, production companies and public and private services, and nations and
indigenous peoples native peasants, develop and coordinate research processes, innovation, promotion,
disclosure, application and transfer of science and technology to strengthen the productive base and
promote the development of society, according to the law.
Article 103:
I. The State shall ensure the development of science and scientific research, technical and technological
benefit of general interest. The necessary resources and the creation the state system of science and
technology will be earmarked.
II. The State will assume as policy the implementation of strategies to incorporate
knowledge and application of new information and communication technologies.
34

46

Figure 1. Own elaboration

Finally, it is necessary to invest resources in the developing capabilities to convert

social figures in leaders and members of their own destiny. To achieve social
community coresponsibility, we must entrust people for the elaboration,
implementation and enforcement of social projects to ensure sustainability of the
actions and increasing self-reliance and self-esteem, looking at them as allies in terms
of justice and not charity.

47

Chapter III
Sovereignty
The second feature is the sovereignty of the state, which resides in the people, it is an
institution ahead of State and is the institutionalization of political power, so that way,
power happens to be represented by institutions and ceases to be individual. Because
power resides in the people, in the nation, does the concept of State Nation rise, not
before the sixteenth century. From here we can say that a nation is "A people living
under a single central government strong enough to maintain their independence from
other powers"(35)
The concept of sovereignty was not handled, byneither Greeks, nor Romans. Georg
Jellinek says that the idea of sovereignty is forged in the Middle Ages and "struggling
with the three powers (the Church, the Roman Empire and the great lords and
corporations) was born the idea of sovereignty and is therefore impossible to know
without having a likewise aware of these struggles." Several authors contemplate the
question of sovereignty in his works such as Herman Heller, with Sovereignty, F. H.
Hinsley, with The Concept of Sovereignty, and Harold J. Laski, with The Problem of
Sovereignty. Thomas Hobbes suppressed this dependency and constituted the only
form of power was sovereign. Thus, in his most famous Leviathan treatise, he
philosophically justifies the existence of state authority. While it would be wise to
sidenote that Natural Law is no stranger than Hobbes theories. It is said that this "law
of nature and the civil law contain each other, and are of equal extension (...) The laws
of nature, which consist in equality, justice, gratitude, and other moral virtues, they
depend on them, based on the condition of mere nature that are not proper laws, but
rather qualities that men dispense through peace and obedience. " After these
reflections, Hobbes affirms that "the law of nature is part of civil law in all the States of
the world (...) Every subject in a State has stipulated obedience to civil law, therefore,
obedience to civil law is in part, also, the law of nature. Civil law and natural law are not
different species but rather different parts of the law, of which a part is written, and is
called civil and the other is unwritten, and is called natural"
Jean Jacques Rousseau, meanwhile, reformulated the idea of sovereignty to an essential
change. The sovereign is the people, and this gives rise to power transferring their
representation in favor of authority. Every citizen is sovereign and subject at the same
time as it contributes both to create the authority and be part of it, as, by his own will
gave rise to this and on the other hand, is a subject of the same authority, and is obliged
to obey.
According to Rousseau, everyone would be free and equal before the law, because no
one would obey a serious commanded by one individual, but rather the will in general
Related article of the Political Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia
Article 7:
The sovereignty resides in the people of Bolivia, it is exercised direct and delegated. From it, emanates,
by delegation, the functions and powers of the organs of public power, is inalienable and
imprescriptible.
35

48

is the sovereign power, one that points out what is right and true and that minorities
should comply in accordance to what the collective will or most say. This Russoniana
conception, which in part led to the French Revolution and influences the appearance
of modern democracy, allowed multiple abuses, since the "general" will set behalf in the
name of the village, and destroyed later through indiscriminate murder. This
genderated irresponsible acts towards the rights of minorities.
The Abbe Sieyes postulate that sovereignty resides in the nation and not upon the
people, pretending with it that authority does not work, but, taking into account the
sentiment of the current majority of people that could be the object of influences and
unarticulated passions, in addition, take into account the historical and cultural legacy
of this nation and the values and principles upon which it was founded upon.
Furthermore, the concept of nation contemplates all of its inhabitants within a territory,
without exclusion or discrimination. Sieyes indicates that Members of Parliament are
representatives and leaders, not heads of state, given that since they enjoy autonomy in
itself, once elected, they will exercise their functions mediating a share of responsibility
and total objectivity when legislating, whereas the heads of state must do what his/her
client tells them to do, in this case, it would be the people.
So, out of Rosseau, the concept of popular sovereignty is spawned, while the Abbe
Sieyes gives way to national sovereignty.
In absolute monarchies, as we have been reviewing, sovereignty is responsibility of the
State, which, in turn, is identified to the King ("I am the state," said Louis XIV). Hence
the monarch is called sovereign, a denomination that still endures. Liberalism
subverted the concept of sovereignty and conceived two different forms of this: One,
revolutionary, in which the people, considered to be a set of individuals, exercises a
universal suffrage (popular sovereignty); another, conservative, which resides in a
parliament census voting (national sovereignty).
The modern state stems from a nationalist foundation, the nation is subjected to a form
of centralized control, the State. The nations seek unity and central authority and
achieve, through the state, a general obedience of the population, and the church
becomes a volunteer organization(36)
The state is the institutionalization of political power, it contains legal regulations that
arise from such power that the State exercises. Also, an inherent legal normative is
included within its concept, from here the notion of sovereignty is derived, and that the
political power within the State and within the law, is the sovereignty of State
institutions.
Sovereignty is a term that was coined up against that of national sovereignty,
Related article of the Political Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia
Article
4:
The State respects and guarantees freedom of religion and spiritual beliefs, according to their
worldviews. The state is independent of religion.
36

49

interpreted in a restrictive manner as the sovergn resident within the nation, a term
difficult to define that can be identified with even more difficulty and restricted in its
effective representation in higher layers of society; while the principle of popular
sovereignty resided within the people, made up by the entire social body, in particular,
by the most humblest, and that can only be expressed by universal suffrage. Popular
Sovereignty held the participation of all male citizens in political life, through universal
suffrage. The French Constitution of 1793 was the first piece of legislation that
established that "sovereignty resides in the people." Jean Jacques Rousseau, in The
Social Contract, it gives each member of the State an equal part, which he calls the
"sovereign authority". This is probably the first theoretical reference on popular
sovereignty.
In a broader sense, trends invite us to not only think of a conglomerate of people
deciding the fate of the nation through their representatives, but rather these figures,
without exclusion, to be part of the development process, participating actively from
the basis of society in the struggle against poverty and inequality. It is urgent to
consider that the responsibles for political transformations, both social and economic,
it is precisely the people, technology and knowledge should be all the all tools necessary
the to make good decisions in the future. We must not assume that the people and their
representatives are fit to rule if they have not been given all the necessary conditions
to do so.
New forms of participation within in a society does not only reside in the innovative
ways to interfere with the same old political space, but instead, to expand and link with
other experiences, the space for political participation. In this sense, a new approach
should not only seek new techniques of citizen participation or democratic
participation, but rather depoliticize the participation in different fields, a matter that
is relevant to realize that participation in the development and political participation
tend to converge in theory and practice. Participation is undoubtedly one of the most
contested topics discussed about development in recent times, and the exact same
happens in the field of politics. However, in both cases there is a disparity of approaches
and interests of the utility, extent and form to be taken by such participation. Because,
despite its apparent importance, in practice most of the time that participation is
limited to second order local issues. It is imperative to address the debate regarding
trend phenomenon whose effects are diffuse and ambiguous(37)
For the UNDP (1993), participation means that people get closely involved in economic,
social, cultural and political processes that affect their lives, being able to exercise
complete and direct or indirect and partial control regarding these processes, but in
any case , this being a fundamental issue with continued access to the decision making
and power. In its 2002 report, the UNDP also devotes time to the analysis of democracy
and governance as tools and objectives for human development.
The researcher Unai Villalba deepens his analysis precisely in this finding of the bonds
37

Participation and Development: Social Capital and Empowerment?, UNAI Villalba, Spain

50

of political participation and democracy with human development: "And it is beyond

statements about democratic function, the importance of political institutions in the
attainment of development, the role of civil society and NGOs in these processes,
accountability, and the regulatory framework for markets to work well, it is urgent to
contrast what role is exercised regarding the trends such as capital and social
empowerment in that scenario(38)
From the Social Capital Initiative, launched by the World Bank, to try to explain how
countries and regions, with similar natural capital, physical and human endowments,
have reached very different levels of economic performance, it is recognized that these
three types of capital determine partially the process of economic growth because they
are overlooked the way in which each economic protagonists interact and organize in
order to generate growth and development (Grootaert 1998). We speak then, of social
capital as the missing link that reflects this way of interacting and organizing, and it
explains that development must be understood as an accumulation and combination of
four types of capital, distinctive but complementary (productive, natural, human and
social).
It is said that from literature, politics, sociology and anthropology, that social capital
generally refers to the set of rules, networks and organizations through which people
gain access to power and resources, and through decision making and the elaboration
of policies for the economy, speaking from a microeconomic level, these can improve
market performances and macroeconomic levels of institutions, legal frameworks and
the role of government in the organization of production (Grootaert 1998). However,
the definition remains, for the rest of documents in this series, is that social capital
refers to the internal social and cultural coherence of society, the reulations and values
that govern interactions among people and institutions with which they are immersed.
So, social capital would be the tail that keeps society together and without which there
would be no economic growth or human well being.
For Coleman, social capital is defined by its function. It is not a single entity but rather
Related articles of the Political Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia
Article 9:
The aims and essential State functions, in addition to those established by the Constitution and the law:
1. Establishing a just and harmonious society, founded on decolonization, without discrimination or
exploitation, with full social justice, strengthening multinational identities.
2. Ensuring the welfare, development, safety and protection and equal dignity of persons, nations,
peoples and communities, and to promote mutual respect and intracultural, intercultural and
multilingual dialogue.
3. Reaffirm and strengthen the unity of the country, and preserve human and historical heritage and
multinational diversity.
4. Ensure compliance with the principles, values, rights and duties established in this Constitution.
5. Ensure people's access to education, health and work.
6. To promote and ensure responsible use and planned use of natural resources, and promote their
industrialization, through the development and strengthening of the productive base in different
dimensions and levels, as well as the preservation of the environment, for the welfare of present and
future generations.
38

51

a variety of entities that have two features in common: All consist of some aspect of
social structure and facilitate certain actions of individuals who are within those
structures. Like other forms of capital, social capital is productive, making the
achievement of certain objectives possible and cannot be achieved in its absence.
Provide objectives and actions that are part of the logic of rational choice and individual
interests for each of the agents.
For Bourdieu, social capital is the sum of actual or virtual resources, , that is collected
by an individual or a group by virtue possessing a durable network of mutual
recognition, more or less institutionalized. Social capital, is understood as networks of
support and solidarity, firstly it would be an attribute of certain classes or historical
social groups and not a unified or homogeneous phenomenon, secondly, the social
space in which said capital works is that of class struggle and domination games. This
author parts with the idea that connections play an important part in the reproduction
of class, since the possession of certain durable social relationships can provide
different access to resources, and in that sense, social capital is not an attribute of
society as a whole, but rather an aspect of class differentiation, therefore, an instrument
of power.
For Putnam, social capital refers to the elements of social organization, such as trust,
regulations and networks that can improve the efficiency of society by facilitating
coordinated action, then, it could be defined as the existence of mutual expectations of
cooperation among the inhabitants of a community or region, supported by
institutional networks which crystallize in continuing cooperation guidelines. Put
another way, social capital must be understood as the set of networks and regulations
of reciprocity that guarantee social interaction and cooperation.
If we try to compare some of the characteristics of each of these definitions, according
to Harriss (2002), despite the vast differences in the understanding of society that
separates Coleman and Bourdieu, for both, social capital is an individual or maybe
group attribute, but in any exclusive case, while for Putnam it would be about a
property of the entire society, meaning as a whole. Similarly, Breton (2005) groups, that
on one hand, structural definitions of social capital (Bourdieu and Coleman) in which
this is to be understood as a set of resources available to individuals as members of a
social network that, as such, is structured, has history and continuity. And locates it at
another end to those culturalist character definitions in which social capital is
conceived as a subjective phenomenon composed of the attitudes and values that
determine how individuals relate to each other so, considering this extremity, these
definitions lead to a kind of superstructural determinism. Although both groups
contrast with eachother in their definitions, there is a wide range of intermediate
positions.
Woolcock (1998), speaks of two concepts which refers to two forms, different but
complementary, social capital, embeddedness and autonomy, the first reference to the
idea of union, integration and entailment, and secondly, the idea of a greater
independence or openness. In addition, it crosses these two variables under two levels
52

of analysis: a micro level, where embeddedness is refered to as an intra-community link

or integration; autonomy to extra community networks or connections. While in the
macro level, embeddedness refers to the Society and State relations or the synergy that
occurs between them, and autonomy of consistency, competence and institutional
capacity or organizational integrity. According to the author, these four forms of social
capital result can be combined in many different ways, and even one form of social
capital can serve different results according to what their combination with other forms
may be.
On the other hand, several authors suggest that social capital is also has a dark side, and
its that the degree of mutual cooperation relations and cohesion of a particular group
does not have to be good for the whole society. This would happen in the case of the
mafia or in confrontations between Catholic and Protestant communities in Northern
Ireland, where the internal cohesion is large but with conflicting intergroup
connections. So, the different types of social capital does not need be maximized, but
rather optimized.
Continuing with the analysis of Villalba, once social capital problems are set, they
become a politicization axis of activities development, we should explore other notions,
such as that of empowerment. Furthermore, it seems that in the coming years, within
the World Bank, the language of social capital will go back and will be replaced by more
precise and specific references directed towards empowerment and community
development (Bebbington, Guggenheim, Olson, Woolcock, 2004). Although, as these
authors warn us, that empowerment will not be free of the free of the depoliticized
language, since the agenda that is brewing around the new concept also presents an
explicit challenge to economic policy agreements that guide the distribution of
resources. Agreements emanating from power relations.
The definition of empowerment, generally speaking, parts off the expansion of freedom
of choice and action. A restricted free speech, in particular, for the poor, they lack of
voice and power over the state and markets, in a context in which the World
Development Report (2000/2001), stresses the importance of increase access to
opportunities, security, and empowerment of the poor, focused for growth and poverty
reduction(39)
Related articles of the Political Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.
Article 16:
I. Everyone has the right to water and food.
II.
The
State
has
the
obligation
to
ensure
food
security,
through
a
healthy diet, that is adequate and sufficient for the whole population.
Article 17:
Everyone has the right to receive education at all levels universally, productive, free, integrated and
intercultural, without discrimination.
Article 18:
I. Everyone has the right to health.
II. The State guarantees the inclusion and access to health for all people, without any discrimination or
exclusion.
III. The health system will be universal, free, equal, intracultural, intercultural, participatory, quality,
39

53

The definition in question that the Bank has offered over time says: "Empowerment is
the expansion of assets and capabilities of poor people to participate in, negotiate with
influence, control and hold accountable institutions that affect their lives ". And while
recognizing that it is a very specific concept for each context and different cultures,
groups and people can conceive in various forms, it argues that there are four common
elements that are directed towards empowerment efforts are fruitful: Access to
information, inclusion and participation, accountability, and local organization
capacity. In addition, it points out three main channels through which empowerment
would increase the effectiveness of development: Because of its impact on good
governance and growth, to make that growth favorable to the poor, and to promote the
attainment of the results of the projects being developed40. Man's destiny is sealed to
the birthplace and sense of territoriality, and in his book "Ethics and economics"
Amartya Sen determined that poverty, aside from being a structural problem also
comes from the opportunities that the environment determines , the respect for human
rights, access to information, health, education and technology. Therefore, the manterritory link will be a birthmark for the rest of his/her life.
Anyway, recently within the Bank, empowerment has been defined as the ability of
individuals and groups to make choices and to transform these choices into desired
actions and outcomes. So, you can get a direct measurement of empowerment
considering these three steps: If there is an option that exists to be chosen; if the option
chosen gets used, and the result obtained after exercising the realized option (Alsop
2005). As theoretical framework reference, in order to implement this concept, we are
talking about agency and opportunity structure, so, it is said that the degree to which a
person is empowered depends on the combination of these two related factors. The
agency refers to the ability of a protagonist to make meaningful choices. While the
opportunity structure alludes towards aspects of an institutional context in which
provide warmth and social control. The system is based on the principles of solidarity, efficiency and
responsibility and is developed through public policies at all levels of government.
Article 19:
I. Everyone has the right to adequate housing and habitat, that dignify life
family and community.
II. The State, on all levels of its government, will promote housing plans
that abide to the interest of society, through adequate funding, based on the principles of solidarity and
equity. These plans will be made available, preferably for low-income families, disadvantaged groups and
the rural areas.
Article 20:
I. Everyone has the right to universal and equal access to basic services of water, sewer, electricity,
household gas, postal services and telecommunications.
II. It is the responsibility of the state, at all levels of government, the provision of basic services through
public entities, joint ventures, cooperatives or community. In the case of electricity, gas and
telecommunications housing may be provided through service contracts with private companies. The
provision of services must meet the criteria of universality, responsibility, accessibility, continuity,
quality, efficiency, effectiveness, equitable and necessary coverage rates, with participation and social
control.
III. Access to water and sanitation are human rights, are not subject to concession or privatization and
are subject to licensing and registration regime, according to law.
40 World Bank, 2002

54

protagonists operate affecting skills to transform the agency into effective action.
Following this new asertion, we establish a methodology that provides for assessing
empowerment, based in one hand, as an indicator for the agency in the endowment of
psychological, informational, organizational, material, financial and human assets.
Furthermore, in the presence and operation of formal and informal institutions, laws,
regulation frameworks and standards that govern the behavior of people who,
ultimately, compose the structure of opportunity (Alsop 2005). Both the agency as well
as the structure of opportunity are to be observed in the following domains and
subdomains: State (justice and politics), Society (home and community), and Market
(credit, labor and goods).

55

Chapter IV
The legitimate Power
The power is a complex and multi-layered concept that lacks of a universally accepted
definition. It is a capacity, a relational phenomenon, it is also a structural phenomenon.
In turn, scholars do not agree whether the power is conflicting or consensual, or about
how it is created. Thus, below are presented three theoretical currents regarding this
topic(41)
First, we can group the conflicting theoretical(42) considering them to those who see
power as a scarce and finite closed system of a zero sum, so in this context, the power
that is placed an individual or group cannot be enjoyed by others at the same time, and
therefore, what one protagonist earns is the cost of someone elses loss. These analisis
are, typically, the relations of power as coercive and centered within government
institutions such as political decision making and influencial public forums, or as the
ability to set the agenda for decision, but also try broader structures towards society.
Second, the theoretical consensus(43) are those who see that, like all human abilities,
power can grow infinitely if you work for it, being something similar to a form of
capacity. From this vision, power does not have to be a zero sum game, this means, that
growth or improvement of a person does not have to negatively affect another. So, there
is limited endowment of power, but this has to be created and legitimized by society,
what occurs more often than none, is that, the higher internal consistency and search
for common objectives is at the heart of it. This would be the idea of power and
empowerment more linked to notions of social capital that we seen presented in the
previous section.
Third, we can discuss about theoretical intermediates( 44 ), for which power can be
somewhat controversial as consensual. One option is to consider a decentered model
of power in which this is not an objectified or combined substance, and is not possessed
or exercised by any person or institution, but rather is always described in a relational
manner, and only exists, when it is exercised. It is claimed that hegemonic or global
forms of power rely on infinitesimal practices operating at a micro level in society, so
that power is everywhere, and can be particularly analyzed through the creation of
social regulations and customs.
However, not all aspects of these three approaches are opposed to each other, so that
you can make a kind of eclectic theory, considering different forms of power. It is,
relevant and interesting then, to appreciate that power as multidimensional and
dynamic, that is, it is changing according to the context and can vary, from domination
and resistance to collaboration and transformation. Where this optic we could
The following discussion has been taken from the texts of Nelson & Wright 1995; Kothari 2001;
Csaszar 2004
42 According to Csaszar these are Dahl, Lukes, Bachrach and Baratz.
43 According to Csaszar we can find Parsons here.
44 According to Csaszar this would be Foucault, Giddens or Clegg.
41

56

distinguish these four types of powers:

"Power on". This implies the involvment of taking a possession of a finite and
scarce. This form is oftenly linked to the conception of power as a conflict, so
that capacity is exercised, and the ceasing it from other agents, can be used to
dominate or simply to prevent that others take it. It's the classic struggle for
resources (material or symbolic) of the State.
"Power about". It refers to the creation of capacities of skills and development
to accomplish a specific objective, so, this form of power is easily identifiable,
with the consensual conception behind it.
"Power with." Occurs when trying to find common objectives, based on different
interests, so that you create a collective force. This also linked to consensual
conception.
"Power with or within." This has to do with consciousness and self knowledge
as well as with their own sense of worth.

In legitimate power, not an abusive one, for Weber, the State is a political institution of
ongoing activity, while it has the legitimate monopoly of physical coercion to maintain
the existing order, in other words, that political power allows the State to have the
privilege of physical force, in a genuine way and not an imposed one. It exercises a
power with and for the people, to be considered legitimate.
By means of legitimate political power, it is a permanent factor of cohesion of political
society, because, this is a mandatory association for its members, the State has the
ability to impose its will, this meaning, to impose a certain conduct to members of the
community. It is a social phenomenon, an instrument of political relationship.
Therefore, we can say that this is the basis of power relations, through which it
undertakes, the will of others in a legitimate fashion, this means not imposed, but
always looking for collective acceptance and, therefore, is always accompanied by a
system of values and beliefs.
With the renewal theory of Lockean liberalism, through the work of Montesquieu and
Bentham, in time coherence with Rousseau, they formulate the doctrine of democracy.
In practice, the conjunction of liberalism and democracy begins to occur with the North
American Revolution and the system of organized Government written in the
constitution in Philadelphia, which were determined and influenced by the doctrines of
the eighteenth century in the French Revolution.
The Revolution was originated by the inability of enlightened despotism to overcome
the contradictions exacerbated by the old regime with the scarcity and misery, both in
the countryside and in the city, and the lack of knowledge on the part of the rulers of
the vital needs of the people. The bourgeoisie launched a revolutionary project to solve
the crisis.
The revolution started in 1789 releasing a wide variety of social forces and revealing a
centrality of ideas and trends. The bourgeoisie gained power and promoted, with the
57

declaration of the rights of man, which is known as the third state. In this way, the ideas
that for a century stirred towards a profound change in society, strengthened from a
transformation of man under the principles of equality, fraternity and liberty.
Soboul tells us that the conditions under which this revolution emerged: "At the end of
the thirteenth century French social structure was still being essentially aristocratic:
They retained the character of their origin, of the time when the earth constituted the
only form of social wealth and, therefore, conferred to those who possessed power over
those who cultivated it"
For coexistence in a given territory, the balance between the power delegated the
Government and the empowered people with trainig, technology and skills of self
determination and development, it is framed in the laws and rules that regulate the
State/Village relations of power, submission, duties and obligations.
It is this legal sense that the state coercion, in order to be legitimate, must respect the
fundamental rights of its population, providing the necessary conditions for creating
peace and harmony in the town.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizenship (1789), is a Declaration made up
of seventeen articles and preceded by a preamble, the text of which was approved by
the members of the French Constituent Assembly from August 17 to the 26 in 1789. It
influenced the Declaration of Independence of the United States (July 4, 1776) and six
other American states 1777-1784, as well as the philosophical thought of Rousseau,
Mosquieu, Condorcet and among other eighteenth century thinkers.
The Sub-Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights of the UN has
issued rules that point to a possible advent of mandatory Corporate Social
Responsibility, but continues to legitimize a structure that generates unlimited
inequality(45)
The Subcommittee, under the Economic and Social Council of the UN (ECOSOC),
adopted in its 55th session in August 2003, the rules on the responsibilities of
transnational corporations and other business enterprises in the field of human rights.
The Subcommittee unanimously approved a resolution of standards submitted by the
group working on the issue, and decided to transfer those rules to the Commission on
Human Rights for consideration and adoption by the commission in March of 2004.
The Subcommittee requested the entrusted group to render the working methods and
activities of transnational corporations considering the information submitted by
Governments, specialized agencies, NGOs and other stakeholders, to later transmit
these comments and recommendations to the relevant companies, governments and
NGOs or other sources of relevant information. The Subcommittee, also requested the
working group to present relevant information regarding indigenous populations,
45

Extracted from the September 2003 report, Jus Semper Global Alliance, Gerard Fonteneau

58

indigenous organizations and communities as well as other interested fields, the

commentary about the regulations based on the principle that, while States have the
primary responsibility to protect human rights, multinational companies and other
enterprises, as members and organs of society, including their officers and persons
working for them, are also responsible for promoting and securing human rights as set
out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
These regulations recognize various sets of principles, guidelines and
recommendations in conjucture, such as as the UN Global Compact, the Guidelines for
Multinational (MNCs) of the OECD, the Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning
the ILO of the MNCs, as well as labor conventions and recommendations of the ILO. The
UN proclaims these new standards and urges the international community to pledge
every effort to spread and respect these guidelines.
These regulations are a set of obligations to be observed by companies, but they do not
have the force of the law since they have to build national legal frameworks first. No
doubt, many of its parts are already covered in the international human rights treaties
signed by the States, but it also depends on these to ensure that companies abide by
them. For this, the UN hopes that States establish and strengthen the legal and
administrative framework necessary to ensure that the relevant companies implement
standards and other relevant national and international laws. In turn, it expects several
of the protagonists to take a series of actions for the proper implementation of these
standards. Amongst these key actions that the UN is asking for includes: That these
standards be monitored and implemented through the extension and interpretation of
intergovernmental, regional, national and local regulations regarding the conduct of
transnational corporations and other enterprises. The different bodies of the UN
Human Rights treaty should monitor the implementation of these regulations by
creating additional reporting requirements for States, and the adoption of general
comments and recommendations interpreting treaty obligations. Unions are invited to
use the standards as a basis for the negotiation of agreements with transnational
corporations and other companies that monitors compliance of these entities. It also
invites NGOs to use the regulations as the basis of conduct expectations of
transnational corporations or other businesses, and monitor compliance. In addition,
monitoring can take place using the regulations as a basis to determin parameters for
ethics initiative and for others, its compliance. The rules should be monitored as well
by industry groups.
Although the regulations are a vehicle of greater strength to achieve minimal acceptable
standards of CSR, and some would argue that they are a step towards mandatory
business practices, that the mere layout of principles stated by Global Compact,
depends directly on the States to enforce them. Moreover, even if all are converted into
laws, this remains in the same degree of ambiguity prevailing in core areas of Social
Responsibility.
Within the areas of greatest concern are: The right to a decent living wage, which is
fundamental to good corporate citizenship and a sustainable environment, despite its
59

crass evasion by most of the involved, the rules remain under the same criteria
currently used by the ILO and other frameworks. This is what makes this concept
ambiguous based on concepts of fair compensation. These regulations appeal to
corporations so that they pay a fair and reasonable waige ensuring a decent standard
living for workers and their families. Such remuneration should take due account based
on the needs of an adequate living condition, with a view towards progressive
improvement. These also emphasize in taking particular care in paying fair wages in
less developed countries. However, they leave this interpretation open as to what is an
adequate standard of living and a fair wage(46)
Since its inception, the Political Constitution of the State recognized the importance of
including fundamental rights established in the Universal Declaration. Similarly, in the
2006 Constitution, it has expanded on overlooked rights, constitutionalising the
aspiration for a better life for its citizens(47)
Related articles of the Political Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia (Labor Rights)
Article 46:
I. Everyone has the right:
1. To decent, safe industrial hygiene and occupational health, without discrimination, and wage
remuneration with fair, equitable and satisfactory reults, which will provide for himself and his family
an existence worthy.
2. A labor source stable and favorable conditions.
II. The State will protect the exercise of labor in all its forms.
III. It prohibits all forms of forced or otherwise analogue of exploitation that
compels a person to perform work without their consent and fair remuneration. Article 47 of the Political
Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.
I. Everyone has the right to engage in commerce, industry or any tender economic activity under
conditions that do not harm the collective good.
II. The workers and workers in small urban or rural production units, on their own, and trade unionists
in general, enjoyed by the state of a special protection regime through a policy of fair trade and fair prices
for their products, so as the preferred allocation of economic resources to encourage their financial
production.
III. The State will protect, foster and will strengthen communal forms of production.
Article 48 of the Political Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.
I. Labor and social regulations are mandatory.
II. Labor regulations are interpreted and applied from the principles of protection of
workers and workers as the main productive force of society, of primacy of the employment relationship,
continuity and stability of employment, of non-discrimination and reversal of the evidence in favor of the
worker and for the worker.
III. The rights and benefits granted to workers and workers may not be waived, and are void in agreement
to the contrary or intended to evade its effects.
IV. The salaries or wages earned, labor rights, social benefits and social security contributions are not
paid privilege and preference over any other debt they, and are unalienable and indefeasible.
V. The State will promote the incorporation of women into the work and ensure the same remuneration
than men work for of equal value, both in the public sphere and the private sectors.
VI. Women will not be able to be discriminated against or fired for their marital status, pregnancy
situation, age, physical features or number of daughters or sons. The guaranteed job security for women
who are pregnant, and the parents until the child or the child reaches one year of age.
VII. The State ensures the incorporation of the young and the young in the productive system, according
to their training and formation.
47 Related articles of the Political Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.
Article 13:
46

60

Chapter V
Citizenship
Citizenship refers to the rights of participation in the communities of the State. These
were promulgated by the widespread Citizens' Rights during the French Revolution.
Currently, citizens practice right to opposition political controversy, exerting pressure
groups, unions and associations. The participation of individuals is increasing more and
more in political life, so that policy decisions are the result of the people's interests.
Thus, sovereignty and the power to the nation is transferred, because as political
decisions, which were taken before in a unilateral method are now taken collectively or
taking into account the opinion of the people.
When referring to citizenship, it is necessary to start off with some preliminary issues,
one must keep in mind that there are different conceptions of citizenship as they are
understood. Two, it is also necessary to make the demarcation between citizenship
(condition) and participation (action) in one hand, and between what is public and
I. Rights recognized by this Constitution are inviolable, universal, interdependent, indivisible and
progressive. The State has the duty to promote, protect and respect them.
II. The rights proclaimed in this Constitution shall not be understood as denial of rights not listed.
III. The classification of the rights established in this Constitutions hierarchy does not determine any
rights or superiority of some over others.
IV. Treaties and international agreements ratified by the Plurinational Legislative Assembly, which
recognize human rights and prohibit their limitation in states of Emergency prevail in the domestic
aspects. The rights and duties enshrined in this Constitution shall be interpreted in accordance with
international human rights treaties ratified by Bolivia.
Article 14:
I. Everyone has a personality and legal capacity under the law and has the rights recognized by this
Constitution, without distinction.
II. The State prohibits and punishes all forms of discrimination based on account of sex, color, age, sexual
orientation, gender identity, origin, culture, nationality, citizenship, language, religious belief, ideology,
political or philosophical affiliation, marital status, economic conditions or social origin, type of
occupation, level of instruction, disability, pregnancy, or that have the purpose or effect of nullifying or
impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on equal terms, the rights of everyone.
III. The State guarantees all persons and communities without any discrimination, the
free and effective exercise of the rights established in this Constitution, laws and international human
rights treaties.
IV. In the exercise of rights, no one will be forced to do what the Constitution and the laws do not require,
nor be deprived of what they do not prohibit.
V. Bolivian laws apply to all persons, natural or juridical, Bolivian or foreign, in Bolivia.
VI. The foreigners in Bolivia have rights and must meet the duties set forth in the Constitution, unless the
restrictions it contains are applicable.
Article 15:
I. Everyone has the right to life and physical integrity, psychological and sexual. No one shall be tortured,
nor will suffer cruel, inhuman, degrading or humiliating circunstances. There is no death penalty.
II. All people, especially women, are entitled to freedom from physical violence, sexual or psychological,
both in the family and in society.
III. The State shall take necessary measures to prevent, suppress and punish gender and generational
violence as well as any act or omission which is aimed at degrading the human condition, causing death,
pain and physical, sexual or psychological suffering, both in the public and private field.
IV. No person shall be subjected to enforced disappearance by cause or circumstance.
V. No person shall be subjected to servitude or slavery. It prohibits mistreating and trafficking of people.

61

private. Three, the notion of citizenship implies a counterpart: The State. And
everything regarding social responsibility should be understood as an ethical fact.
The sociologist Sinesio Lopez points to a suitable definition for this study and collects
two interdependent dimensions: The passive citizenship and the active citizenship.
This author states that citizenship is an individual with rights guaranteed by the state
and political responsibilities to the community of which it is part of.
Quoting the Roman writer Aller Zarate, from this definition we can show that the
elements that make up citizenship are the duties, rights and participation. Since it is
understood that we could point out three types of citizenship, taking as reference the
classic study of TH Marshall, he clearly states:
1. Civil Citizenship(48), has everything to do with all rights and duties relating to the
freedom of individuals.
2. Citizenship Politics(49) has a close relationship with participation.
48

Related articles of the Political Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

Article 108:
The duties of the Bolivians include:
1. Understand, comply with and enforce the Constitution and laws.
2. Know, respect and promote the rights recognized in the Constitution.
3. Promote and disseminate the practice of values and principles proclaimed in the Constitution.
4. Advocate, promote and contribute to peace and the right to promote the culture of peace.
5. Work, according to their physical and intellectual capacity, in lawful activities and socially useful.
6. Form on the educational system through high school.
7. Taxed in proportion to their economic capacity, according to the law.
8. Denounce and combat all acts of corruption.
9. Attending, feed and educate their daughters and sons.
10. Attending, protect and provide for their ancestors.
11. Assist with all necessary support in cases of natural disasters and other contingencies.
12. Military service, mandatory for men.
13. Defend the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bolivia, and respect their symbols and values.
14. Foster, defend and protect the natural, cultural and economic of Bolivia.
15. Protect and defend the natural resources and contribute to sustainable use, to preserve the rights of
future generations.
16. Protect and defend an adequate environment for the development of all living things.
49 Related articles of the Political Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia
Article 21 (Civil Rights). The Bolivians have the following rights:
1. Cultural self-identification.
2. To privacy, intimicy, honesty, honor, self-image and dignity.
3. To freedom of thought, spirituality, religion and worship, expressed as individually or collectively, in
public or private, lawful purposes.
4. To freedom of assembly and association, as public and private, for lawful purposes.
5. To freely express and disseminate thoughts or opinions by any means of
communication, orally, written or visual, individually or collectively.
6. To access the information, interpret, analyze and communicate freely, individually or collectively.
7. The freedom of residence, retention and circulation in all of Bolivia, which
includes the output and income of the country.
Article 22:

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3. Social Citizenship50, has to do with welfare.

These are the basic fundamentals that must be worked into reality like ours, for the
construction of citizenship. In addition to considering the objective elements of civil,
- The dignity and freedom of the person is inviolable.
- To respect and protect, it is the primary duty of the state.
Article 23:
I. Everyone has the right to freedom and personal safety. Personal liberty may only be restricted within
the limits prescribed by law, to ensure the discovery of historical truth in the acting of judicial bodies.
II. To avoid the imposition of adolescents and custodial measures. Any adolescent who is deprived of
liberty receives preferential attention from the judicial, administrative and police branches. These MUST
ensure at all times respect for their dignity and condition of anonymity. The detention must be met in
rooms other than those made for adults, taking into account the needs of their age.
III. No one may be detained, arrested or deprived of his liberty except in the cases and according to the
forms established by law. The execution of the command will require that this issued by competent
authority and be issued in writing.
IV. Any person who is found in flagrante infringement may be apprehended by any other person, even
without a warrant. The only object of the apprehension will be the level of conducting the competent
judicial authority, who should resolve the legal situation within a maximum of twenty-four hours.
V. By the time a person is deprived of his liberty he/she shall be informed of the reasons for their
detention is necessary, as well as of the petition or complaint filed against him/her.
VI. Those responsible for the confinement centers MUST keep track of detainees. No person will receive
in their registry without copying the corresponding command. Failure to comply will result in
prosecution and penalties set by law.
Article 24:
Everyone has the right to petition individually or collectively, whether oral or written, and obtaining
formal and prompt response. The exercise of this right does not demand more than the identification
requirement of the petitioner.
Article 25:
I. Everyone has the right to the inviolability of their home and secrecy of private communications in all
its forms, except through judicial authorization.
II. Correspondence are inviolable, private papers and private demonstrations contained in any medium,
these will not be able to be seized except in the cases determined by law for criminal investigation, under
the written order of a competent judicial authority.
III. Neither the public authority or any person or organization will be able to intercept private
conversations or communications by installing the control or centralize.
IV. The information and evidence obtained in violation of correspondence and communications in any
form will not produce legal effect.
50 Related articles of the Political Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia
Article 26 (Political Rights):
I. All citizens have the right to freely participate in the training, exercise and control of political power,
directly or through their representatives, and individually or collectively. Participation will be fair and
equal for men and women.
II. The right to participation include:
1. The organization for the purpose of political participation, according to the Constitution and the law.
2. The suffrage, by an equal vote, universal, direct, individual, secret, free and
mandatory, publicly scrutinized. The vote shall be exercised as of eighteen years of age.
3. Where democracy is practiced communal electoral processes shall act according to rules and
procedures, supervised by the Electoral Organ, providing the electoral act not subject to a vote equal,
universal, direct, secret, free and mandatory.
4. The election, designation and direct nomination of representatives of nations and indigenous peoples
native peasants, according to its own rules and procedures.
5. The audit of the acts of the public function.

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political and social citizenship, it is necessary to consider the subjective elements:

Knowledge of the levels of rights, duties and foundations; the attitudes towards these;
evaluation of these rights, the citizen who would like to be, and take into account
traumas, fears, inferiority or superiority complexes. This implies addressing citizenship
in its entirety.
As for Social Responsibility, this has to do with the sense of belonging to a community,
which is built slowly. The need to be part of something that causes us to generate a need
for socialization. The formation of groups also has to do with an ethical fact, meaning,
the development of active citizenship. When generating public awareness is achieved
recognition of the other is accomplished, and being part of a community allows citizens
to participate in public affairs.
According to Paul Capriotti, in this new scenario companies have a history, they evolve
and change. They live in a particular environment with which they interact, and change;
in turn, these influence the same with its evolution and change. Therefore, companies
may be considered as part of an integrated daily reality of individuals, not only for the
services they use and the products they consume, but also because companies become
participating subjects and are established on a social level(51)
Therefore, there is a broadening of the field of action of the companies. This change of
status of the company in modern society can be considered as fundamental. The
Company enters society not only as an active economic subject, but also as a social
subject engaging (Capriotti, 1992 and 1999)(52)
Recognition of this situation by the organizations has achieved that they are designated
to assume new responsibilities towards society. However, Marquez and Fombrun
(2005) duely note that there is no single criteria for defining what encompasses the
"corporate responsibilities". In international literature we can find two distinct
positions.
First, a train of thought holds that the only responsibility of a company is to its
shareholders and, therefore, defends the economic role (the elaboration of product
good and the generation of profits) as the main limited liability of companies , only, by
the awareness of business ethics and legal regulations (Friedman, 1970).
Moreover, there is another increasing current, which states that the responsibility of
the companies must go beyond purely an economic role and assume a more social role
(Carroll, 1979; Wartick & Cochran, 1985 Wood, 1991; Carroll, 1999; Waddock, 2004).
This current is the difference between economic and legal responsibilities (economic
role) and ethical and social responsibilities (social role) and argues that companies
must fulfill a social role linked to their social responsibilities, in addition to its purely
In Bolivia, the companies doesnt have the same rights as natural or physical persons. Therefore does
not apply to them in Article 21 of the Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia above. (Civil rights).
52 CAPRIOTTI, Paul, Reason and Word Magazine, Issue 53, Mexico
51

64

economic and legal functions.

65

Chapter VI
From Corporate Social Responsibility to Corporate Citizenship: The theory of
the Fourth Result
The conception of what is and what it covers Corporate Social Responsibility has
evolved over the past fifty years. In different studies some authors (Wartick & Cochran,
1985 Wood, 1991; Carroll, 1999; Waddock, 2004) suggest that the existence of a
gradual evolution since Bowen (cited in Carroll, 1999) of personal responsibilities of
the entrepreneur, reflected in the fifties, to the current coexistence of different concepts
such as social responsibility (Carroll, 1979), Corporate Social Behavior (Wartick &
Cochran, 1985 Wood, 1991) or Corporate Citizenship (Waddock, 2004).
Archie Carroll (1979: 500), in a fundamental article directed to the further development
of the theories of corporate responsibility, said that the Corporate Social Responsibility
expectations encompasses economic, legal, ethical and discretionary/philanthropic
fields and what society has from the organizations at a given point of time. So, its clearly
establishing financial responsibility of the organization to its owners/shareholders and
legal responsibilities in relation to the current regulations; as well, it was mentioned
that corporate responsibilities go beyond legal and economic responsibilities but also
to assume a set of social and environmental commitments. Thus, Corporate Social
Responsabilidad was established as the economic, social and environmental
responsibilities of the organizations (the so-called triple bottom line or TBL).
The triple bottom line is a term which refers to the sustainable business performance
of a company expressed in three dimensions: Economic, Environmental and Social. Its
origin alludes the result net income in the last row of the accounting income statement.
It finds its antecedents in the term sustainability, defined by the Brundtland Report of
the United Nations in 1987.
The expression was first used in 1994 by John Elkington, founder of a British
consultancy called SustainAbility, who, subsequently expanded the article and more
thoroughly in his book "Cannibals with forks". His argument states that companies must
develop three different (and very independent) results. The first result is the traditional
measure of corporate profits, the reason of being of a company translated into a "profit
and loss account". The second is the result of a "people count" of the company, a
measure that identifies if the company has been socially responsible through its
operations. The third result is the "planet account" that measures its environmental
responsibility. Then the triple bottom line measures three elements for a period of time:
Revenues (financially), people (social) and the planet (the environment), (See Figure
2). According to this theory, only a company that produces an integral TBL is taking into
account the total cost involved in business.
In addition to the statement of performance evidence, in relation to the triple bottom
line, a sustainability or corporate social responsibility report is manifested. In some
countries the preparation and publication of them were still being voluntary and
evolutionary in character. However, in 2008 the Government of Buenos Aires approved
66

the Law No. 2594 which regulates the balance of Social and Environmental
Responsibility (BRSA) and in 2012, the Law 922/12 of "Obligation to Social Balance
to state companies or with actionary participation"
Ideally, an organization with good performance, in terms of triple bottom line
accounting, would have resulted in the maximization of its economic and
environmental benefits, as well as the minimization or elimination of negative
externalities, accenting emphasis on the responsibility of the organization to groups
interest and not just to shareholders. In this case, interest groups is refered to anyone
who receives the influence, directly or indirectly, by the acts of the company. By virtue
of the mentioned above, a triple bottom line accounting facilitates the performance of a
business entity as a vehicle for the coordination of interests.
The TBL is a particular manifestation scorecard, behind it is the same fundamental
principle: What you measure is what you get, because what is being measured is
probably what you should pay more attention to. Only when companies measure their
social and environmental impact will they be socially and environmentally responsible.

Environmental
Result

Social
Result
Economic

Result
Fig. 2 Triple Bottom Line

After more than a decade, where cost reduction had been the number one priority of
business, social and environmental costs of production and the transfer of services to
low cost countries such as China, India and Brazil became increasingly more apparent
to Western consumers. These included the indiscriminate felling of the Amazon basin,
excessive use of hydrocarbons and the exploitation of cheap labor.
67

The growing awareness of irregular business practices in these areas, forced several
companies, including Nike and Tesco, to reexamine their supply policies and maintain
better control of the ethical standards of their suppliers, countries as far off as Mexico
and Bangladesh where labor markets are not regulated and manufacturers are able to
ignore the social and environmental standards. Also, growth encouraged the Fair Trade
Movement and added its brand to the line of products produced and marketed in an
environmentally and socially "fair" (of course, this concept is open to interpretation)
standard. From modest beginnings, the movement has gained new spirit in the last five
years. However, the Fair Trade movement is still small, focused mainly on coffee, tea,
bananas and cotton, representing less than 0,2 % of all supermarket sales in the UK in
2006.
One problem with the triple bottom line is that the three separate accounts can not be
added. It is difficult to measure the "planet account" and the "count people account" in
the same way as "profits", or in other words, in terms of cash. The total cost of an oil
spill, for example, is probably incalculable in monetary terms, as is the cost of displacing
entire communities to clear forests, or the cost of depriving the children of their
freedom to learn in order to make them work at a young age.
Its no wonder that many countries in the region began to regulate business operations,
considering that the vision of a context must be comprehensive and revolve around
social, economic, environmental and political dynamics. These regulations are
translated into laws that promote transparency and ethics in business performance, as
well as compliance with national and international standards as the basis for
implementing the entire CSR program, as mentioned in previous paragraphs.
In developed countries comply with laws is taken for granted. The normative aspect
"taken for granted" and has not been considered in the eye of the triple bottom line
(Social-Environmental-Economic) scope. In Bolivia and much of South America, there
are still companies that consider CSR translating to the payment of their taxes, or they
consider it not terminate the women in a state of gestation (or parents who are
protected under Supreme Decree 0012), or pay wages on time and other similar
actions.
Under this scope of the triple bottom line is not that companies can (or should) commit
lobbying and promotion with government and community figures in order to influence
public policy. For example, dialogue platforms made up of Company-Government-Civil
Society to promote a Comprehensive Law regarding CSR that generate agreements to
alleviate poverty through the creation of decent jobs by the companies, through direct
sales of raw materials by communities and improving infrastructure and roads by the
Government, as well as the channeling of new and better markets obtained through
diplomatic relations. This integral view is reflected too, in incentives such as tax
reduction to companies carrying out CSR activities with communities.
Politics is not something alien to our interests, we are social beings and part of an entire
whole. We need to relate to others. This network of links form the society in which we
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live and it is in this partnership we should be guided and directed towards a destination
with a common vision. So I think that we are unquestionably political and social beings,
that is, as Aristotle said, "Something intrinsic in us"
This look with a fourth result allows us to value and assess the Company as one of the
key drivers for the development of the country. At the same time, obligates companies
to prepare themselves to not just report social impacts forced to report not only
prepare for social, environmental and economic impacts, but also political efforts
measured by results in laws and regulations.

Environmental

Result

Social
Result
Economic
Result

Politic Result
Fig. 3 Own Elaboration

A comprehensive approach contains four dimensions: Social, Environmental, Economic

and Politics, the last one is the basis for development of all previous dimensions. In
other way, without political stability there is no place for Socially Responsible
Investment because is socially impossible.

69

Chapter VII
The broad concept of Corporative Citizenship
The vision of CSR has been evolving towards greater extents in recent years, appealing
to a new expression: The Corporate Social Performance (CSP). Wartick & Cochran
(1985: 758) define it, as the integration of the principles of social responsibility,
processes of social responsiveness, and policies developed to address social problems.
For his part, Wood (1991), based on Carroll (1979) and Wartick & Cochran (1985), has
defined the CSP as a business organization's configuration of the principles of social
responsibility, processes of social and political response, programs and observable
outcomes regarding social relations of the company. So, in addition to the fundamental
principles of CSR, Carroll incorporated processes and management policies of the
organization to be performed and to carry out those principles.
The concept of Corporate Citizenship becomes relevant over the last decade, according
to Waddock (2004: 10), in order to incorporate the CSP overall approach and specific
grounwork for the Stakeholder Theory. Thus, the Corporate Citizenship is defined as:
The strategies and practices that a company develops in handling its relations with
interest groups and the impacts on the environment (Waddock, 2004: 9). In this
conception, it consolidates and emphasizes the need to incorporate the strategies and
policies of Corporate Citizenship in the overall process of the management of
organizations, while incorporating the idea of the public relations management within
the different audiences of the organization as part of the development of Corporate
Citizenship.
That is of course, over time. Ihe initial idea of Bowen, regarding the employer's liability,
has been gradually expanding its meaning, and in turn, has coined new terms to
accommodate the new content of concepts.
Beyond these issues that are eminently terminological, there is a set of common
grounds between all preceding definitions and concepts that do exist.
This is how, Corporate Citizenship in a broadened sense, can be defined, as the
commitments, strategies and operational practices that a company develops
implementing, managing and evaluating their Conduct, its Ethics and Corporate
Relations.
The Corporate Citizenship then, is based on four broad areas: (a) The Corporate
Behavior, (b) Corporate Ethics (c) Corporate Relations, and (d) Corporate Citizenship
Policies.
This way, the Corporate Citizenship is not an activity "added" to the business
management or communications department of the business, but rather is an integral
part of the philosophy management of the enterprise, based on socially responsible
behavior exerted by firms of when to perform their activities themselves. However, the
Corporate Citizenship is not a set of planned activities for the organization to "calm
70

awareness" or "return society part of the benefit", "positioning the company socially"
or even " philanthropically help society", but rather, it is an ethical and philosophical
commitment at the corporate level, to develop a business and make money, of course,
in a socially responsible manner.
From a business perspective, the growing importance of Corporate Citizenship is
marked by the fact of being considered as a legitimizing activity for the organization
towards society (Wartick & Cochran, 1985; Neu et al., 1998; Hooghiemstra, 2000;
Deegan , 2002). The central idea of the Theory of Legitimation points out that the
survival of the organization is dependent on the environment in which it operates,
within the limits, and the rules set by society(53) (Deegan, 2002; Hooghiemstra, 2000).
Social legitimacy is based on a "social contract" between company and society, giving it
a "license to operate" in a given territory. Society can "revoke" that social contract with
the organization through a series of various evidence: Consumers can stop buying
products from such company or the community can actively demonstrate against the
organization(54). Thus, the survival of the organization will look threatening if society
Related articles of the Political Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia (Participation and
social control).
Article 241
I. The sovereign people, through civil society organizations, participated in the design of public policies.
II. Civil society organizations shall exercise social control of public management at all levels of
government, and businesses and public institutions, private ventures and management of fiscal
resources.
III. Will exercise social control over the quality of public services.
IV. The law will establish the framework for the exercise of social control.
V. Civil society can be organized to define the structure and composition of the participation and social
control.
VI. State entities generate spaces of participation and social control set by society.
Article 242
Participation and social control involve, in addition to the provisions set out in the Constitution and the
law:
1. Participate in the formulation of state policies.
2. Support the legislative branch in the collective construction of laws.
3. Develop social control at all levels of government and territorial entities autonomous, self-sufficient,
and decentralized.
4. Generate a transparent management of the information and the use of resources in all areas of public
management.
The
information
requested
by
the
social
control
may
be refused, and will be delivered in a complete, accurate, appropriate and timely.
5. Develop reports to substantiate the application for the revocation of office in
according to the procedure laid down in the Constitution and the Law.
6. Hear and rule on the management reports of the organs and functions of State.
7. Coordinate the planning and control organs and functions of the state.
8. Report to the relevant institutions for research and processing, where it is considered appropriate.
9. Collaborate in public observation procedures for the designation of the charges that apply.
10. Support the transparent electoral organ the nominations of candidates for corresponding to public
office.
54 Related articles of the Plurinational State of Bolivia (Consumer Rights)
Article 75:
53

The users and consumers enjoy the following rights:

71

believes that the organization is not fulfilling its social contract. In this sense, public
relations can be considered a legitimizing practice of the organizations.
The business responsibilities have been linked, intimately, to public relations. So, it is
clearly seen how close a relationship exists between the practice of public relations and
the corporate responsibility action. Grunig and Hunt point out that public or socail
responsibility has become one of the main reasons for an organization to have a public
relations function (Grunig & Hunt, 1984: 48). In this sense, corporate responsibility not
only would be closely linked to public relations, but it would be an action legitimizing
the activity of public relations within an organization.
Moreover, the importance of Corporate Citizenship for the different audoiences of the
organization (consumers, investors, employees, community), is reflected in the various
studies on the valuation of corporate behavior in relation to their CC. A study by IPSOS
(2004) conducted on European consumers, highlights the importance of corporate
ethics in business. In another study, conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (2005) in
Spain, indicates the growing awareness of consumers towards CSR practices, where
almost 75% of existing consumers who have been penalized or who are willing to
penalize companies that are not responsible. Another study, conducted by MORI (2004)
for the Institute of Public Relations in the UK, points out that more than 75 % of
consumers, when evaluating a purchase, consider important the level of Corporate
Social Responsibility, almost 90 % of employees believe that the company should be
socially responsible, 40 % of analysts and investors consider it important that a
company is responsible, and more than 50 % of journalists and editors consider major
social responsibility when they judge companies.
Finally, the Corporate Citizenship has a considerable impact on the corporate
reputation of companies and mainly in the structuring of the attributes that make up
that reputation. The corporate reputation refers to the overall assessment that the
public has of a company over time (Gotsi and Wilson, 2001; Fombrun, 1996 and 2001;
Villafane, 2004). The public perform this evaluation by different attributes associated
with companies (Fombrun et al., 2000), which all make up the corporate reputation.
These attributes can be integrated into two large groups: Attributes on Corporate
Capacity and attributes on Corporate Social Responsibility. So, we can link these
typologies of attributes with the typologies of responsible entrepreneurs: Legal
Economics and what is Social Ethical. In one hand, the associations are linked to the
economic role (corporate capacity) in relation to its economic and legal responsibilities
(make good products and services, law enforcement and increasing profits) and other
associations are linked to this social role (Corporate Social Responsibility), related to
their social responsibilities (respect for human rights, protecting the environment and
its economic and social contribution to the community). The exercise of these two roles
1. To the provision of food, farmaceuticals and products in general, comply to safety, quality, and quantity
are available inn adequate and are sufficient and efficient in terms of supply.
2. A reliable information on the characteristics and content of the products they consume and services
they use.

72

and how they are communicated to the public, may come into influence, and the
composition of the corporate reputation in the attributes associated with corporate
ability and corporate social responsibility of firms (Brown, 1998, Brown and Dacin,
1997; Brown and Cox, 1997; Berens and Van Riel, 2004). Politics and Corporate
Citizenship actions help strengthen CSR attributes, which in turn, allow expantion and
the strengthening of the company's corporate reputation.

73

Chapter VIII
Volunteering
The relationship between volunteering and social development begins to gain
centrality in the development agenda from the World Social Summit held in
Copenhagen in March of 1995. It was precisely in this context that an application to the
United Nations Committee on Social Development be included as one of the topics in its
agenda.
The Summit brought together 117 world leaders and remains to this date, the most
important meeting in terms of attendance of heads of state and government, who
pledged to generate strategies for the eradication of poverty, promotion of full
employment and integration social.
In the deliberations of the Summit, it was considered that social development is a
necessity and aspiration of the people of the world, a responsibility of governments
upon all sectors of civil society. The most valuable public policies are those that
empower people make the most of the capabilities, resources and opportunities.
Five years later, the United Nations Assembly in Geneva, opened a period to reaffirm
the declaration of 1995, check the instruments used and recommend actions to enhance
social development efforts. In that context it was defined that the link between decent
work and poverty reduction, recognizing Decent Work(55) as a fundamental objective of
social development.
The Social Summit in Geneva spoke openly of the function that meet community
organizations and volunteers in the economic and social development fields. This
debate took place on the basis of the reflections produced by a working group
composed of thirteen very prominent voluntary organizations worldwide: the Office of
the Human Development Report, United Nations Research Institute for Social
Development (UNRISD), United Nations Volunteers (UNV) and the World Bank. The
emerging perspective of volunteerism for social development remained defined
according to the following premises:

Volunteering plays a significant role in the welfare and progress of

industrialized and developing countries.
Volunteering is the basis of much of the activity of the Social and Civil
Organizations (CSOs) and decentralized government services.
Volunteering is an important channel of citizen participation.
Volunteering, both nationally and internationally, is a little-known practice,
there is little documented information on the phenomenon, and has not

Decent work, according to the results of the Geneva Summit, sums up the aspirations of individuals
with respect to their working lives. Involves opportunities for productive jobs with fair remuneration,
safety at work, social protection, personal development, social integration, freedom of organization,
participation in decisions that affect their lives, equal opportunities and gender equality.
55

74

analyzed its reach and impact in society and is barely recognized and
considered.
Volunteering encompasses various forms, content and meaning.
Volunteering contributes the following major benefits: It generates a significant
economic contribution in between 8 % and 15 % of GDP in the world, it
contributes to good governance and development, and contributes to the social
inclusion of marginalized populations. It also recognizes three major challenges
of volunteerism for Social Development:
The downward trend of volunteerism, a phenomenon that some attribute to the
advance of globalization and its effects on the reduction of social commitment
and the rise of individualism.
The relationship of volunteering with the State should be in complete
cooperation, but not considered a replacement. It brings up a problematic and
erroneous perspective, according to which volunteering is a means of
substitution for the State, in order to affirm the perspective of volunteering,
rather, as a support and complement the public sector.
The instrumentalization of volunteering by the private sector, that is, when
companies make use of this resource to improve its image and reputation.

From the perspective of the four protagonists, and discussed in previous chapters,
Enterprise, Government, Schools and Community, the convergence around resignifies
volunteering as a social practice committed to social inclusion and will be consolidated
in the coming years(56)
In this new perspective, one must understand volunteering as a channel for citizen
participation and building for the common good, leaving behind the prospect of
volunteering as a social resource to the crisis of the welfare state (mitigation of effects
on setting as extension of State responsibilities) or efficient service delivery. It also
leaves behind paternalistic and altruistic approaches to make way for volunteering as
a social practice, showing the adhesion of citizens to democratic values and practices in
contribution with development(57)

In December 2005, the Law on Volunteering in Bolivia was aproved (Law No. 3314 of December 16,
2005), this law that protects the rights and obligations of volunteers in the country.
57 Related article of the Political Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.
Article 8:
I. The State assumes and promotes as ethical and moral principles of plural society: ama qhilla, ama llulla,
ama suwa (do not be lazy, do not lie and do not steal), suma qamaa (live well), andereko (harmonious
life), Teko kavi (good life), ivi maraei (land without evil) and qhapaj nan (noble path or life).
II. The State is based on the values of unity, equality, inclusion, dignity, freedom,
solidarity, reciprocity, respect, complementarity, harmony, transparency, balance, equal opportunities,
social and gender equality in participation, common welfare, accountability, social justice, distribution
and redistribution of social goods and products, to live well.
56

75

The new approach calls for creating a "voluntary transformer" that is the same as
citizenize volunteering, as planned out by Garcia and Spampinato58
These authors argue that the traditional volunteering is transformative, it is declared
neutral and is content with self-realization. In order to assume a transformer character,
the emerging volunteering should include actions directed to attack the root causes of
social exclusion. Only then will volunteering leave the short termism of its actions and
give way to focus on long term strategic actions, committed to social justice, understood
as a civic exercise that promotes, produces, increases, and strengthens the common
good. It is a politicized social practice, through which the volunteer emerges as a major
key player in social development, able to influence the formation of public policies for
social development, focusing on a perspective of rights and the construction of
citizenship(59)

In his text Oscar Garcia and Sandra Spampinato "Citizenize Volunteering". An enumeration of short but
criticized the dimensions to consider for making social Volunteering a social practice "more citizens".
National University of San Martin. 2003.
http://estatico.buenosaires.gov.ar/areas/des_social/voluntariado/documentos/ciudadanizar. Doc
59 LICHA, Isabel. Extracted from "A strategic perspective of the University Volunteer in Latin American
Region." November, 2009
58

76

Final Chapter
The "DinoSir"
"There was once a DinoSir so, so poor,
that the only thing he had was money"
Reviewing notes from years ago I came across this definition, which I wrote in one of
my old notebooks, feeling unmotivated when I left a meeting with a banker.
The Definition of Bolivianensis DinoSir: A personality called, commonly, a
businessman, who thinks that the main source of a company is the financial capital and
infrastructure. It devalues human capital, exploits its workers, does not comply with
labor regulations as effective working days, break times, timely payments of salaries,
social benefits, salary increase or the bonuses. Also, this classification includes those
who never have time, those who do not know how to delegate, the everything-ology,
those who do not give space to the young men and women that hold executive positions,
those that do not rely on innovation in technology, or constant changes, those who think
that women should not have hierarchical positions, those who do not hire people with
different abilities, or invest resources to change policies regarding the hiring of
personnel or eliminate architectural barriers in favor of social inclusion, those who
continue dumping their waste into rivers, pollute and destroy habitats in the full pursuit
of higher profits without ensuring new generations.
They, each and every one of them are in danger of extinction.
Recommendation: How to avoid being a DinoSir of CSR?

Follow the rules, take risks for your employees

Invest
strategically
and
stop
doing
charity
events
without
concrete and tangible results.
Improve
not
only
the
lives
of
your
workers,
but
also that of their families
Fight against corruption head on.
Insist that your CSR team think of planning and working together with
the community to develop joint projects. Avoid improvisation. Think of the four
protagonists presented in this book: Government, Academia, Business and
Community.
Fight against child labor head on and generate decent jobs.
Delegate and trust in the corporate young men and women, listen to them.
Generate decent jobs for the most vulnerable sectors (People with different
capabilities, elderly people).
Work on articulation and seek local allies/partners: social and community
organizations, foundations, churches, governments and universities. The
DinoSir is destined to die quickly if they decide to work alone.
Analyze: a Company is designed to generate profits and not to act as an NGO.
77

Everything in life is a constant process of adaptation, which does not adapt

quickly to change, and is not prepared for survival.
"It might be time, in the context of CSR, to adapt or die" (Visser).

78

CONCLUSIONS
The historical background of Bolivia, in a sea of riots, treachery, political instability,
social and economic, in addition to the environmental devastation and the enormous
opportunities that arise from a new world. Where the current Corporate Social
Responsibility invites to rethink new ways of doing business and trade fairs to promote
innovation, science, technology and corporate ethics, for the generation of jobs with
equity and social justice. They require real projects of real impact that create
sustainable change in the lives of families in need, involving all of societies figures.
Development must start from the citizens themselves, all Bolivians, so that, from the
base of society itself, they seek strategic solutions participating and adressing social
problems in areas of public spaces and peaceful scenarios where they exercise full
citizenship.
In Bolivia, 64% of the population is young, yet living among youth fashion, fads without
content, advertisements influencing imposing its own values. The young have lost their
way towards a path of dreaming of a better world is possible. The dreamers in Bolivia,
are older than they were thirty years ago, when they lived through times of dictatorship
and democracy was only idealed. Today, everything is given, there is democracy,
freedom, licentious and there is plenty of time. The value of money has surpassed every
good attitude towrds others. The children and youth of the present will be the
workforce of tomorrow. All children under 18 years, who in 2011 accounted for 41.9%
of the population, will have between 19 and 36 years in 2030 and will represent 30.4%
of the population. This population of children and youth will constitute approximately
40% of the workforce. It is they who will sustain the country with their work and,
therefore, the human capital investments that are made now will pay off when
participating in the Bolivian economy.
The big mistake that has been made is to confuse companies Corporate Social
Responsibility isolated actions of philanthropy, paternalism, welfarism and a "social
marketing" which is nothing more than a way to disguise a means of advertising to sell
more without understanding the magnitude of what responsible behavior is and what
it implies. This confusion is not exclusive to only companies, but the media and civil
society have acted as accomplices in the reduction of the concept and lies on the
responsibility to take action and do something about the impact it causes.
The Businessman of this century has the obligation to adapt to all social, political and
economic changes; he must be flexible and changeable, in a world where the story
unfolds in leaps and bounds, creating jobs with fair and consistent growth expectations
for their workers, which means a new way to invest in intangibles. Similarly, politicians
MUST create the legal conditions and techniques to promote the young, from an early
age, "become" instead of "almost there". The fire and passion to achieve a dream did not
arise in the universities, an entrepreneurial spirit runs from home and early school
years. You cannot create entrepreneurs in a country that rewards those who stand by
79

idley and estimate minimum effort, which in turn recognizes the most astute and not
the smartest.
Bolivian laws discourage the good practices of corporate social responsibility and
solidarity. Tax Law 843 recognizes donations as deductible expenses, but charges its
freight cost by three quarters to the Company and only a quarter of it to taxes, what this
means is that the State is willing to give up one if private companies renounce three.
The fact of the matter is that, nobody does, and NGOs are not financially supported
within the country, finding themselves forced to turn to outside funding from foreign
countries. Therefore, it is up to us to cultivate the independence and advancement of
the double counting that we criticize so much( 60 ). In the area of competitiveness,
ISO 26 000, validated in November 2010, this is a guide that marks lines regarding
Social Responsibility set by the International Standardization Organization, there are
only a few or almost no companies up to date with these regulations61
This was perceived in the First International Conference regarding Corporate Social
Responsibility held in Brazil, concerns were that derived in a wake up call to adopt
policies to prevent discrimination against small producers, so, that the rule does not
become a discriminatory barrier to market entry or restrict innovation of enterprises,
in a context where 80 % of the economy revolves around small businesses. In the
country over a million of productive units operate, of which eighty percent are small
bussnesses and out of the 900 000 customers of the financial system, 75 % corresponds
to microfinance.
Since the last edition up to the current, it appears that the subject matter of CSR in
Bolivia has given minimal steps, while in the meantime the World is moving faster. In
2012 the World Bank Board of Directors approved the creation of the Global Alliance
for Greater Social Responsibility, a new mechanism for increasing, in developing
countries, the scale of social responsibility of the beneficiary institutions and civil
society organizations, and provide complete support. "The Bank now comprises more
Comment of Roberto Laserna in "Philanthropy and Development"
Was designated an ISO Working Group on Social Responsibility (WG SR) led by the Swedish Institute
of Standardization (SIS for its acronym in English) and the Brazilian Association of Technical
Standardization (ABNT) the task of developing it, by posing these benefits and are xpected as follows:
Facilitate the establishment, implementation, maintenance and improvement of the structure or
framework of social responsibility in organizations that contribute to sustainable development.
Contribute to increasing confidence and satisfaction in organizations among shareholders and interest
groups (including managers);
Increase guarantees on Social Responsibility through the creation of a single standard accepted by a
wide range of stakeholders (interest groups or target groups);
Strengthening enforcement guarantees a set of universal principles, as expressed in the United Nations
conventions, and the statement contained in the Global Compact principles and, particularly, in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the statements and ILO conventions, the Rio declaration on
environment and development, and the United Nations Convention against corruption. Facilitate market
releases and removing trade barriers (implementation of a free and open market), complement and avoid
conflicts with other standards and requirements of existing Social Responsibility .
60

61

80

than ever, that citizen commitment and participation of the project, beneficiaries are
crucial requirements to achieve lasting results in development", pointed out the
president of the World Bank Group, Robert B. Zoellick. "This new partnership,
especially endorses a task of critical importance in the area of Social Responsibility,
particularly in the monitoring and supervision of projects and programs for their
beneficiaries. I hope this new alliance becomes a component of the Bank Group's work.
Meanwhile, the European Commission, through the Employment Program, through the
Legal Affairs and Inclusion, requires country members to promote CSR in their national
public policy, since 2011. With these enormous challenges for the development of a
culture of.
With these enormous challenges for the development of a Social Responsibility,
particularly in the context of inequality between urban and rural areas, men, women,
elderly and children, between the indigenous communities and the cities, it is aimed at
a large national consensus, eliminating collective negativity from our consciences, a
result of a chain of historical frustrations, capable of creating disasters in our local
reality. We must conceive our focus to local venues, respect for nature, for the spiritual,
for the past. With modern rootlessness, nationalism, ecology and, above all, with the
recovery of values and tradition will continue to fade the general indifference and
tolerance, with respect and harmony.
Al Gore once mentioned: Without a planet, there is no wealth. If we dont begin to value
our territory in a more comprehensive sense of what represents the feeling of a nation,
this meaning, without caring for our Bolivian territory, companies or citizens would not
exist with those who make Corporate Social Responsibility; without a community, there
would be no Nation. It is an indivisible whole.
It is the moment of balance, the qualitative, the development of the individual and their
families, the restoration and conservation of natural and cultural heritage. Efforts that
can be glimpsed in a new social, political and economic context within the country if we
intend to do so one and all.
We must revalue all protagonists, understanding what affects the farmer in the
highlands of the Altiplano affects the entrepreneur in Santa Cruz and vice versa. The
nation is an indivisible whole and what happens to a Bolivian child only affects us all.
The time to act is now, the future of the country does not depend on tomorrow.

81

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