New GIGA Working Paper | Collective Voting Decisions in Uru Indigenous Communities, Bolivia

GIGA Working Paper | No. 340 | August 2024.

Abstract

This article explores the practice of “instructed voting” prevalent among rural Indigenous

communities in Bolivia, referring to the taking of collective electoral decisions. It adds to the

debate on clientelistic bloc voting by revealing voters’ motives for participating in clientelistic

deals, as based on interviews with Uru Indigenous community members and politicians.

It shows the ambivalent significance of the practice for the Indigenous communities under

study, being a protective mechanism against external threats on the one hand and a gateway

to vote buying on the other. Social norms and trust in community authorities are found to

be central drivers for achieving voters’ compliance. The article adds another piece to the

puzzle on how clientelistic deals happen in democratic systems under a secret ballot yet

without apparent infringements of the law, which is the case in the communities under

study here.

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