Democratic Politics

(ii) Bolivia’s Water War :
(1) Bolivia is a poor country in Latin America. The World Bank pressurised the government to give up its control of municipal water supply. The government sold these rights for the city of cochabamba to a multi-national company (MNC). The company immediately increased the price of water by the four times. Many people received monthly water bill immediately increased the price of water by four times. Many people received monthly water bill Rs. 1,000 in country where average income is around Rs. 5,000 a month. This led to a spontaneous popular protest.
(2) In January 2000 a new alliance of labour human rights and community leaders organised a successful four-day general strike in the city. The government agreed to negotiate and the strike was called off. Yet nothing happened.
(3) The police resorted to brutal repression when the agitation was started again in February. Another strike followed in April and the government imposed martial law. But the power of the people forced the officials of the MNC to flee the city and made the government concede to all the demands of the protesters.
(4) The contract with the MNC was cancelled and water supply was restored to the municipality at old rates. This came to be known as Bolivia’s water war.
(iii) Democracy and Popular Struggles :
(a) Democracy evolves through popular struggles. It is possible that some significant decisions may take place through consensus and may not involve any conflict at all. But that would be an exception. Defining moments of democracy usually involve conflict between those groups who have exercised power and those who aspire for a share in power. These moments come when the country is going through transition to democracy, expansion of democracy or deepening of democracy.
(b) Democratic conflict is resolved through mass mobilisation. Sometimes it is possible that the conflict is resolved by using the existing institutions like the parliament or the judiciary. But when there is a deep dispute, very often these institutions themselves get involved in the dispute. The resolutions has to come from outside, from the people.
(c) These conflicts and mobilisation are based on new political organisation. True, there is a element of spontaneity in all such historic moments. But the spontaneous public participation becomes effective with the help of organised politices. There can be many agencies of organised politics. These include political parties, pressure groups and movement groups.