A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

i) In the Constitutions
In the Ecuadorian and Bolivian Constitutions the respective concepts of
buen vivir and vivir bien were introduced as a fundamental basis. The
indigenous words were used to express them (Ecuador, Articles 14 and
71; Bolivia, Article 8), which is quite significant.
The Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008 specifically affirmed the Rights of
Nature that belong to it and are independent of their utility for human
beings (Albert Acosta, 2008, 24, and 2009, 44; Eduardo Gudynas 2009b,
38 and 40, and 2010, 14). This is, according to the spirit of the juridical
text, an essential aspect of implementing sumak kawsay (Article 71).
We explain this below. On the other hand, there are two components
of the project in the document: the development regime (Title VI) and
the buen vivir regime (Title VII), the first being at the service of the second.
It is for this reason that the reference is to another development
(Eduardo Gudynas, 2009a, 275), in which the quality of life, a fair juridical
system, popular participation and the recovery and conservation of nature
are key elements. Some are positive: the rights of buen vivir (food,
healthy surroundings, water, communication, education, housing, health,
etc.), which are of the same stamp as classic rights. Others are negative:
for example, the rejection of neoliberalism and the opposition to the extractive-exporting
model of development (Alberto Acosta, 2009, 24).
The philosophy of the Bolivian Constitution is very similar. The suma qa -
maña or vivir bien is at the base of it: “The Bolivian economic model is
pluralistic and is oriented to the quality of life and living well” (Art. 306).
Thus suma qamaña is taken up and promoted as the ethical-moral principle
of the plural society of the country. In contrast with Ecuador, the
notion of the Rights of Nature were not introduced into the Bolivian Constitution.
Its approach is closer to the third generation of rights of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations (Eduardo
Gudynas, 2011b, 236). Nevertheless, the link between indigenous
knowledge and traditions is clearly spelt out (ibid., 235). As in the case
of the Ecuadorian Constitution, the practical consequences are to be
seen in many aspects of collective life: the generation of the social prod-
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