La Paz is the de facto administrative capital of Bolivia, housing the executive and legislative branches of government. (The constitutional capital of the country is Sucre, where the judiciary branch remains.) The two branches in La Paz are located in the Plaza Murillo. 

The name La Paz, meaning "the peace," is actually quite an oxymoron, as the city has seen many uprisings, sieges, protests, and revolutions. It has been under rule of military dictators, socialist leaders, as well as democratic presidents. The role of president has been filled with turbulence and surrounded with failure. The Presidential Palace in the Plaza de Murillo has come to be known as the Palacio Quemado (Burnt Palace), due to its repeated gutting by fire. As recently as 1946, the president of Bolivia was publicly hanged there by distraught widows.

Bolivia is a unitary multiparty republic with two legislative houses - the Chamber of Senators and the Chamber of Deputies. Each of the nine departments directly elects three senators, while the 130 deputies are indirectly elected. The directly elected president serves a five year term (starting from the 1997 general elections) and appoints a cabinet.