The new Bolivian economic, social, community and productive model

By Luis Alberto Arce Catacora, President-elect of Bolivia

An economic model is the one that defines how economic surpluses are generated and distributed.

A society is sustainable over time when the generation of surpluses is directed to the satisfaction of current and future needs through the distribution of this surplus in society, when the surpluses do not satisfy the collective need, then it is necessary to redistribute them based on social need.

It is not the claim of the New Economic, Social, Community and Productive Model to directly enter the change of the capitalist mode of production, but rather, to lay the foundations for the transition to the new socialist mode of production.

In the neoliberal model, the surplus was generated from the worker's surplus value, whose exploitation consisted in the extension of working hours and the reduction of rights.

This surplus was also produced by the exploitation of natural resources in the hands of transnational corporations and the private sector who appropriated this surplus for their benefits, making minimal transfers to the State so that it, in turn, could face social tasks such as education. and health. Therefore, the generation of surplus and its distribution was not equitable, there was not a good distribution of income and this began to generate social problems that, ultimately, are economic problems, because when these economic problems are solved, the problems are gradually eliminated. social.

What is happening in Europe at the moment, for example, is a social mobilization because of economic problems; there, supposedly, there was an equitable distribution of income; However, now problems arise because acquired rights are being taken away from the population: the retirement age is raised, the salary of public employees is reduced, the State's ability to invest is taken away; that is, the income distribution is modified with the consequent social problems.

The New Model is a model of transition towards socialism

In the discussions for the design of the new model, they wondered what comes after the neoliberal model, is socialism coming, which is our final goal, or will an intermediate phase come? This is a model of transition towards socialism, in which many social problems will gradually be resolved and the economic base will be consolidated for an adequate distribution of economic surpluses. At no time was it thought of building socialism immediately, Karl Marx himself -when he speaks of the Paris Commune- and Lenin, give elements that explain why the mechanical transition from capitalism to socialism cannot be carried out, there is an intermediate period It is the one that is had in mind with the New Economic, Social, Community and Productive Model in Bolivia, that is, to begin to build a society of transit between the capitalist system, generating conditions for a socialist society. The diagnosis To understand the new model, one must start from the diagnosis of the capitalist system, which since 2005 was already experiencing acute wear and tear expressed in four crises: energy, food, climate and financial; to which was recently added the macroeconomic policy crisis. The energy crisis is observed in the increase and volatility of oil and natural gas prices, thus affecting the costs of electricity. This crisis hit the largest countries in the world hard, an example of this are the blackouts in large capitals such as New York and Paris; This is an example of the high energy consumption of developed countries, in contrast to the insufficient power generation capacity in those countries.

Faced with this, there is the great potential that the countries of South America have, for example, to generate energy, although they do not have the same level of demand. This panorama is observed in the night photographs, taken by the satellite, of planet earth, where it is seen that the northern hemisphere is extremely illuminated, while the southern hemisphere is practically dark, only the large cities, such as Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Caracas, are illuminated, the rest of the South American region and the African continent are practically in darkness. This growing demand for energy in developed countries, together with the depletion of gas and oil fields and reserves in the world, forced several industrialized countries to seek alternative sources of power generation, including nuclear power. However, the latter is being revised after the latest events in Japan. The food crisis was already noticed in 2005, when the MAS government plan proposed food security.

Food production was becoming insufficient in the world due to the growing demand for groceries, especially in Asia, and the decrease in agricultural arable land on the planet. To this This is a model of transition towards socialism, in which many social problems will gradually be resolved and the economic base will be consolidated for an adequate distribution of economic surpluses.

In the New Model, the State is the fundamental actor in the economy,

In the New Model the emphasis is on production, the change caused by the energy crisis is added, where some countries used a large part of their territory to produce biofuels, that is, food for machines, instead of food for people. The third crisis of capitalism is the climate crisis. International organizations have called it: “climate change”, but in reality it is a climate crisis generated by the warming of the earth as a result of the disorderly production, consumption and depredation of natural resources by developed countries and transnationals to the detriment of ecology and the environment in the world. From there, climatic phenomena such as El Niño, La Niña, cyclones, earthquakes and earthquakes arise that have worsened worldwide in recent years. That is why, for example, in Bolivia there are high and low temperatures that have never been registered, heat sources that turn into fires, droughts such as those registered in the Chaco, among others. The fourth crisis of the capitalist system is the financial crisis, the so-called Wall Street financial bubble that leads to a series of bank failures, especially due to the use of highly imaginative derivative instruments that got out of control. In 2008, the bubble that had been inflating for 15 years in the United States burst. The misguided economic policies and poor supervision of the financial system in this country caused this situation to be further exacerbated until it reached a point of financial crisis that shows no signs of ending because now it has repercussions in Europe, also producing changes at the global level. . There was then a crisis of mistrust in society, especially what had been built in the capitalist system and the role of the market. The bubble that had been inflating for 15 years in the United States is broken, the misguided economic policies of this country made this situation even more exacerbated until the bubble burst with the financial crisis that does not end Currently the world is not only going through the crisis financial and its consequences in the real sector; but also: n The five crises of capitalism.

How the new model works

The new economic, social, community and productive model identifies two pillars: the strategic sector that generates surpluses and the sector that generates income and employment. The model identifies four strategic sectors that Bolivia has to generate economic surpluses for Bolivians: hydrocarbons, mining, electricity and environmental resources. They are the old and traditional sectors from which the primary export model has lived. The country cannot be changed overnight, there must be a strategy that is embodied in this model to get out of that negative circuit. Among the sectors that generate income and employment are the manufacturing industry, tourism, housing, agricultural development and others that have not yet been revitalized. According to the new model, to develop a productive Bolivia, generate that productive transformation, modify the primary export model, it is necessary to carry the surpluses of the mining, hydrocarbon, and electric energy sectors, to the sectors where it is required to lay the cornerstone , the seed of a productive country, that is, in the manufacturing sector, industry, tourism and agricultural development. The State is the redistributor, which must have the capacity to transfer resources from surplus sectors to generators of employment and income. In other words, what is sought is to free Bolivia from dependence on the export of raw materials to abandon the primary export model and build an industrialized and productive Bolivia. Although for a time Bolivia will continue to be a primary exporting country, this time it must be clear about the objective and the path to take. This is an economic model that is based on the success of the state administration of natural resources. This model is designed for the Bolivian economy, it depends on the way in which natural resources are managed.