Political Representation, Policy & Inclusion NINA AGRAWAL, RICHARD ANDRÉ, RYAN BERGER, AND WILDA ESCARFULLER
FIGURE 1 REPRESENTATION AND EFFECTIVENESS OF INDIGENOUS AND AFRO-DESCENDANT
LEGISLATORS
COUNTRY
BOLIVIA
COLOMBIA
(Indigenous)
COLOMBIA
(Afro-descendents)
ECUADOR
(Indigenous)
ECUADOR
(Afro-descendents)
GUATEMALA
FIRST YEAR
OF TERM
1989
1993
2005
2009
1998
2002
2006
1998
2002
2006
1996
1998
2007
2009
1996
1998
2007
2009
1986
2000
2008
PERCENT OF E THNIC
LEGISLATORS
IN THE TERM
3
4
17
25
2
2
1
0
2
2
5
2
3
4
0
1
5
2
8
12
14
NUMBER OF BILLS APPROVED
THAT WERE PROPOSED BY
E THNIC LEGISLATORS
0 of 1
1 of 1
4 of 4
2 of 3
1 of 17
0 of 18
0 of 12
0 of 0
0 of 10
2 of 15
0 of 1
1 of 3
6 of 6
1 of 7
0 of 0
1 of 1
1 of 1
0 of 1
0 of 0
1 of 1
1 of 10
in the National Assembly. In contrast,
the Bolivian Plurinational Legislative
Assembly passed such enabling legislation in 2010.
Fourth, what is striking about the
laws approved is their narrowness. In
contrast to women’s or African-American issues examined in other studies
on substantive representation, which
tended to measure impact of these
representatives by their effectiveness
on issues of social spending or—in
the case of women—women’s health
care or maternity leave policies, there
was a notable lack of laws and constitutional initiatives related to social
policy in these country cases. 8
Instead, the majority of the laws
and initiatives identified in this study
104 Americas Quarterly SPRING 2012
focused largely on issues of recognition (territorial and linguistic), education and antidiscrimination. Only in
Colombia did Indigenous and Afro-Colombian legislators press for a specific change in state policy to permit
greater access to health care and pension benefits for Indigenous peoples
(Law of Culturally Inclusive Health
Care, 2001).
The absence of a social policy
agenda for Indigenous and Afro-
descendant representatives deserves
further exploration. In part, it may
reflect a subtle form of self-checking,
recognition of the likely opposition
of non-Indigenous or Afro-descen-
dant representatives and policymak-
ers—though this is less likely the case
in Bolivia. Arguably, the limited, sin-
gular nature of the agenda may also
limit the capacity of Indigenous par-
ties such as Pachakutik in Ecuador
to establish a broad working agenda
with other parties, relegating them
to a spoiler role.
AMERICASQUARTERLY.ORG
