Dilemmas of justice in the post-neoliberal educational policies of Ecuador and Bolivia

Abstract

The election of the first indigenous president in Bolivia, Evo Morales (leader of the Movimiento al Socialismo, MAS), and of Rafael Correa in Ecuador (leader of Alianza País, AP) were important turning points in the social and economic history of these two countries. Both were elected with anti-neoliberal platforms of social movements. Their election promised radical changes in public policy in order to change the historical injustices that had remained unresolved with the rise of democracy. Redistribution, recognition of ethnic differences, and broader participation in the policymaking process were the three bottom-up demands for justice that brought these governments to power. In this article, I discuss how in these two cases the three bottom-up demands for justice – that emerged under the double transition to democracy and neoliberalism – have been incorporated, in different ways, in education policy.