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Bolivian political science was formally founded in 1983 at Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA) in the city of La Paz, following two previous attempts in 1969 and 1979 interrupted by military coups (Bueno & Torrico 2015). After the democratization process, which ended in 1982, the promoters take back their intention to make the program function, and though it was created in 1983, it is only in 1987 that the university receives its first political science professors formed abroad, mainly from Mexico. In 1992, political science starts to function at Universidad Autónoma Gabriel René Moreno (UAGRM) in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra with the first graduates in 1996. In 1997, in the city of Cochabamba, the political science program is created at Universidad Mayor de San Simón (UMSS); first depending from the Sociology, Law, and Economics programs, and since 2001 as independent program. These three processes described above, took place in the [23] three main cities of Bolivia and in three public universities, constituting the first “stage” for Bolivian political science regarding programs creation.

At private universities, the first political science program was established at Universidad Nuestra Señora de La Paz (UNSLP) in 1999, followed by a Department of Political Science and Philosophy at Universidad de la Cordillera. Finally, in 2003 the Universidad Católica Bolivia (UCB) established a series of undergraduate social science programs, among which was Political Science. These three private universities held their programs only in La Paz³, and they constitute as the second “stage” of political science programs.

The last stage of political science programs has started recently, in 2008 at Universidad Amazónica de Pando (UAP) and in 2011 at Universidad Pública de El Alto (UPEA). These have a special distinction, since it’s the first time that the discipline leaves the main three cities and goes to other places, in this case to Cobija, in the department of Pando, and to El Alto, a neighbor city to La Paz. These universities stand out for being relatively new and have betted for political science programs at such a “young” face of their institutional lives.

When it comes to research, Bolivian political science is still weak. This weakness is not due to a lack of research or researchers, but more because of a failure in the diffusion processes or because lack of acceptance among international academia. From the eight universities with a political science program, four of them have a research institute and a journal and another one has only a journal⁴. Moreover, the five journals (Revista Ciencia Política, Conocimiento i Política, Estudios Políticos, Ciencias Políticas, and Análisis Político)⁵ face problems of basic institutionalization processes, such as having a designated ISSN, compliance with strict periodicity, or counting with a correct editorial practice for academic journals (for example, call for paper or peer review). This past year, however, there has been an attempt from the Bolivian Political Science Association (ABCP) to promote a publication that can at least meet these basic requirements: the Bolivian Journal of Political Science⁶. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that Bolivian political studies, among which political science is inserted with sociology or law, have had more impact when research comes in books, and these books have been mainly produced outside universities with the support of international or multilateral cooperation funds (García-Yapur 2017), but usually with limited or no peer review or other academic standars.

Finally, professional and academic networks of political science proliferate in Bolivia. There are four regional networks (from La Paz, Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, and Tarija) and one national network. However, none of these connect with each other nor do they gather many members to be viewed as legitimate. Outside of La Paz, the three networks were created to respond to regional interests of political science professionals that see research and academic promotion as centralized; while in La Paz, the regional and the national⁷ networks were created seeking more spaces of representation and action. The Colegio de Politólogos de La Paz (CPLP) was founded first as a response to the closed informal structure of the University⁸. In the same way, a few years later, the Bolivian Political Science Association was founded, looking for a more open and academic space as a response to [24] the perceived closed structure of the CPLP. At the end of all the political games inside these associations, political science as one cohesive discipline has not been able to institutionalize.