Report on Citizenship Law Bolivia Maria Lorena Leiva Salinas (Trans. Lucrecia Rubio Grundell) 1. Introduction The concept of citizenship in Bolivia emerged in relation to the modern state. It entailed a qualitative shift in terms of civil society’s conquest of, and participation in, public spaces and areas of decision-making affecting the political community. In addition, citizenship acted as a control mechanism and a way to curb the arbitrariness of the state. Citizenship developed alongside the liberal state, as the institution in charge of safeguarding rights and responsibilities. It became the basis of the legal and moral relationship between individuals and the state. From a historical perspective, the notion of citizenship reveals the currency of a set of individual rights that were progressively conquered in a long history of social struggles and conflicts. Marshall and Bottomore1 establish a sequence, with the conquest of civil rights first, political rights later, and then social ones, also called second generation rights. However, given the context, characteristics and dynamics of particular social formations, these also assumed their own temporality and scope. Bolivia became an independent state in 1825 and promulgated its first Magna Carta a year later. Since the first constitution, Bolivia distinguished between nationality and citizenship. From this first regulation we see that nationality can be acquired by birth ius soli and ius sanguinis, and by naturalisation. Nationality is a right that every person in Bolivian territory has, and which past constitutions also guaranteed. Citizenship is defined as the right to be eligible for and hold public office, as well as being able to elect state representatives. We will see that Bolivia has experienced many reforms, which were often inappropriate. The issues of nationality and citizenship were not properly taken care of by governmental authorities. The New Constitution has not entailed substantial changes in terms of the structure and functional organisation of the state. These respond to the classic liberal republican model of the division and balance of powers, and of political representation based on popular sovereignty and on the election of authorities by suffrage under the principles of universality and equality before the law. The regulation of citizenship and nationality in Bolivia does not fully reflect the complexity of social relations in the state. The relevant legislation was approved by the Constituent Assembly without much debate, and without further exploration of the underlying issues. This explains why no norms complementing the constitution have been adopted, and the dispersed regulations issued in over 200 years of independence have been maintained.2 1 T. Marshall, y T. Bottomore. Ciudadanía y clase social, España: Alianza Editorial, 1998. “Tensiones irresueltas en torno a la ciudadanía y la interculturalidad”, en: Figueroa, Consuelo (Ed.) Chile y américa latina democracias, ciudadanias y narrativas históricas, Universidad Diego Portales, RIL eds. Santiago- 2 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT -CR 2020/2 - © 2020 Author 1