Chuquisaca Department

Chuquisaca Department contains Bolivia's constitutional capital Sucre while the seat of government operates from La Paz—a political arrangement that creates dual-capital dynamics unique among South American nations. This split traces to the 1899 Federal War, when La Paz seized governmental functions from Sucre but the constitution was never amended. The resulting arrangement demonstrates how path dependence can preserve institutional structures long after their original logic has evaporated.

The department shares approximately 5% of Bolivia's gas reserves with Cochabamba, and the Margarita-Huacaya gasfield straddles the border with Tarija. But Chuquisaca's economy has never matched the resource wealth of its neighbors. Sucre's preserved colonial architecture—it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991—reflects past importance as the administrative center of Spanish Upper Peru, but the shift to tin mining concentrated growth in Oruro and Potosi while the move of government to La Paz reduced Sucre to a legal and educational center.

Chuquisaca demonstrates niche partitioning through institutional specialization. While La Paz houses the executive and legislative branches, Sucre retains the Supreme Court and serves as a university city with multiple higher education institutions. This division of administrative labor creates a modest but stable economic base different from the extraction-dependent departments. The department's relatively small gas reserves connect it to Bolivia's hydrocarbon economy without creating the dominance that defines Tarija or the political leverage that eastern departments have sought.