Government and Politics
The Plurinational State of Bolivia is governed by the Political Constitution of the State, in force since February 7th 2009, which constitutes Bolivia as a Social Unitary State of Plurinational Communitarian Law, free, independent, sovereign, democratic, intercultural, decentralized and with autonomies. Bolivia is founded on the plurality and political, economical, judicial, cultural and linguistic pluralism within the integration process of the country.
The Bolivian State is divided in four Branches:
1) Executive Branch;
2) Legislative Branch;
3) Judicial Branch and the Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal;
4) Electoral Branch.
- The Executive Branch is comprised of the President, as well as the Vice-President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia and the Ministers of the State.
- The Legislative Branch is represented by Plurinational Legislative Assembly, composed of two chambers, the Chamber of Deputies and the Chamber of Senators and it the only Branch with the capacity approve and sanction laws that govern the whole country.
- The Judicial Branch and Plurnational Constitutional Tribunal is composed of four jurisdictions:
1) Ordinary Jurisdiction, which exercises for the Supreme Justice Tribunal, the Departamental Justice Tribunals, the Sentence Tribunals and judges;
2) Agro-Environmental Jurisdiction, which exercises for the Agro-Environmental Judges and Tribunal;
3) Indigenous Peasants Jurisdiction, which exercises for its own authorities; and
4) Specialized Jurisdictions, regulated by law ( the process of implementation will start in the new Legislative Assembly).
The members of the Supreme Justice Tribunal and the Constitutional Tribunal were elected by the vote of the people on October 16th 2011.
Bolivia also has a Board of Magistrates and a Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal, responsible for ensuring the supremacy of the Constitution, exercise control of constitutionality, and err on the respect for and observance of the constitutional rights and guarantees.
- The Electoral Branch is responsible for organizing, administrating and execute the and proclaim their results. Its composed of: The Supreme Electoral Tribunal, Departamental Electoral Tribunals, Electoral Courts, Suffrage Juries andElectoral Notaries.Also, B
olivia is organized into departments, provinces, municipalities and indigenous peasant territories.
The nine Departments at make the Plurinational State of Bolivia are:
- Beni;
- Chuquisaca;
- Cochabamba;
- La Paz;
- Oruro;
- Pando;
- Potosí;
- Santa Cruz;
- Tarija.
The departmental autonomous government is constituted by a Departmental Assembly, with deliberative, legislative anddepartmental oversight powers in the areas of competence and an executive body.
Regional autonomy is recognized, consisting of several municipalities or provinces with no geographical continuity and without transcending departmental boundaries, that share culture, language, history, economy and ecosystems in each department, it will be established as a space for planning and management.
The municipal autonomous government consists of a Municipal Council with municipal deliberative, legislative and auditing powers in the areas of competence, and an executive body, chaired by the Mayor. According to information provided on the website of the Federation of Municipal Associations of Bolivia (FAM) (www.fam.bo), the country is divided into 337 municipalities, distributed as follows: 85 in La Paz, 56 Santa Cruz, 47 in Cochabamba, 40 in Potosi, 35 in Oruro, 29 in Chuquisaca, 19 in Beni, 15 in Pando and 11 in Tarija.
The indigenous peasant autonomy consists of self-government as an exercise of self-determination of nations andpeasant indigenous peoples, whose population share territory, culture, history, languages, and organization or legal, political, social and economic characteristics.
