Different Aspects of Development: From Economic Growth to Well-being. Case Study: El Alto and Montero, Bolivia

This paper explores the changes experienced in the people’s subjective and objective well-being as well as their understanding of the concept of buen vivir in Bolivia, more specifically in the cities of El Alto and Montero. These changes will be looked at since the arrival of Evo Morales to power and with the economic bonanza experienced due to high commodity prices and different nationalizations. Bolivia is a very diverse country and one of the poorest of Latin America, but in the last decade it has suffer major economic and social changes. This paper will try to explore how this changes affected the people’s well-being and their perceptions of it. The two cities selected represent the two sides of Bolivia and show both the east and the west of the country, which have been in constant ideological struggle. By exploring both primary and secondary data, this study analysed the different effects in terms of human development index, Gini coefficient, self-evaluation of life, basic needs and the conceptualization of buen vivir. The paper will point out that the effects of economic growth were different for subjective and objective well-being and that the conceptualization of buen vivir still is a work in process and that trying to take a philosophy of life as a political goal for a country can have major challenges.