Donna Lee Van Cott

A Political Analysis of Legal Pluralism in Bolivia and Colombia

In this article the author compares recent efforts in Bolivia and Colombia to implement constitutionally mandated regimes of legal pluralism, and identifies the most important factors affecting the practical realisation of legal pluralism: the capacity of the political system, the legal tradition and society to tolerate normative diversity; the geographic isolation and cultural alienation of indigenous communities; the degree of internal division within indigenous communities and movements regarding legal pluralism in general, and in specific cases, that have arisen, and the availability of effective legal mechanisms to indigenous communities seeking to protect this right.

Constitutional Reform in the Andes: Redefining Indigenous-State Relations

In the 1990s most Latin American countries underwent significant constitutional reforms. Almost all of the new constitutions incorporated language that formally recognised the identities and rights of their indigenous populations for the first time. Among the first states to do so were the central Andean countries, following the lead of neighbouring Colombia, which introduced the then-most-extensive constitutional regime of ethnic rights in Latin America in 1991.

Field Research in Developing Countries: Hitting the Road Running

heavailabilityofrelativelyreliableandcompa-rabledataonlineandtheincreasingemphasisonstatisticalandformalresearchmethodshasledmanypoliticalscientiststodismissresearchin foreign countries as a waste of time andmoney.Weleavethatdebatetoothers(see,e.g.,ComparativePoliticsOrganizedSection2005;QualitativeMethodsOrga-nizedSection2004).Instead,weoffersuggestionsformaxi-mizing the contributions of fieldwork to the production oforiginalresearch.Wepayparticularattentiontoresearchindevelopingcountriesowingtotheuniquechallengesofunder-takingresearchthere,butwebelieveourinsightsareapplica-bletofieldresearchmoregenerally.Thisarticleisbasedonaworkshopwedesignedtoprovidepracticaladviceforgraduatestudentsandtosteerthemtowardexistingresourcesonthetopic.Wecovertheidentificationofshort-andlong-termgoals,thenecessarystepstoprepareforaproductivefieldvisit,theschedulingandconductofper-sonalinterviews,thechallengesoffocusgroupsandpartici-pantobservation,theobligationandopportunitytofacilitateaccesstoyourresearchresultsinyourfieldsite,aswellaspracticalandsecurityconsiderations.Throughoutthepiece,weareattunedtohowmultipleandoftenconflictingsourcesofidentitycaninhibitorinsomecasesenhancetheoverallexperienceoffieldworkinforeigncountries.Wespecificallyaddress power relations in interviews, focus groups, andfollow-upcommunicationwithinterviewees.