Confronting Bolivia's "Lack of Demographic Capacity": Protonatalism in Post-Revolutionary Bolivia, 1950s-1970s

After coming to power in April 1952, the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR) looked address Bolivia’s economic problems, part, through initiatives encouraging population growth. A 1953 report highlighted underpopulation as a cause of limited potential. The solution “lack demographic capacity” was public health measures that would lower morbidity and mortality rates encourage reproduction boost country’s human capital. This article analyzes prevalent pronatalist tendencies MNR government, including positive eugenics criticism birth control, demonstrate centrality growth MNR’s political agenda. At time when other Latin American countries began implementing control pathway stability, recommended by United States international organizations, Bolivia diverged from global discourses about overpopulation embraced pronatalism. While welcomed some development ideologies associated with modernization, they rejected reframed debates towards reorganization. They married pronatalism modernizing agenda revolutionary nationalism, demonstrating policies were fundamentally conservative on matters gender roles.