Colombia Internacional

Colomb. int. | eISSN 1900-6004 | ISSN 0121-5612

Electoral Competition at the Subnational Level. Emeralds and Politics in Colombia, 1997-2015

No. 103 (2020-07-01)
  • Margarita Batlle
    Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI)
  • Carlos Andrés Hoyos
    Investigador independiente
  • Laura Wills-Otero
    Universidad de los Andes, (Colombia)
https://doi.org/10.7440/colombiaint103.2020.05

Abstract

Objective/context: This article is part of a special edition of Colombia Internacional: “Transformaciones de los sistemas partidarios en América Latina” (Party system transformations in Latin America). It explains the transition from closed, non-competitive party systems to competitive party systems in Colombian emerald municipalities from the late 1990s until 2015. Methodology: We use a subnational approach within a unitary system to test a body of literature that has focused almost exclusively on federal countries. Furthermore, we show the importance of building bridges between the literature on subnational authoritarianism and that of rentier economies to analyze the Colombian case. Our analysis is based on quantitative and qualitative information: electoral data, interviews with key informants, observation and analysis of local and regional newspapers. Conclusions: Electoral competition in Colombian municipalities is heterogeneous, leading to different types of trajectories. Focusing on our case study in the Western province of the Boyacá department, Colombia, we argue that competitive systems emerged when local hegemonic elites lost economic and political power as a result of the emerald business’ decline. The configuration of competitive systems was therefore an effort by opposition parties to gain political power in contexts where local patrones (political bosses) were challenged by unexpected structural conditions, and by opposition leaders that took advantage of that situation. Originality: Although recent literature shows the Colombian party system has changed towards more competitive elections, these processes do not follow the same paths, nor do they share the same characteristics across the country. We focus on an insufficientlystudied region as a vehicle for understanding the way structure and strategy interact in specific electoral contexts: mining-dependent local economies.

Keywords: Subnational Politics, Party Systems, Elections, Competitiveness Trajectories, Colombian Politics

References

Acevedo, Katrina and IvánBornacelly. 2014. “Panel Municipal”. In Documentos CEDE. Bogotá: Universidad de los Andes.

Basset, Yann, Juan Carlos GuerreroBernal, Karen Nathalia CerónSteevens and Andrés Mauricio PérezCarvajal. 2017. “La política local en Riosucio (Chocó): ¿un caso de autoritarismo subnacional?” Colombia Internacional (91): 45-83.

Batlle, Margarita. 2014. “Formato y dinámica del sistema de partidos colombiano desde una perspectiva multinivel (1992-2011)”. In Territorio y poder: nuevos Actores y competencia política en los sistemas de partidos multinivel en América Latina, edited by FlaviaFreidenberg and JulietaSuárez-Cao, 93-123. Salamanca: Editorial Universidad de Salamanca.

Behrend, Jacqueline. 2011. “The Unevenness of Democracy at the Subnational Level. Provincial Closed Games in Argentina”. Latin American Research Review 46 (1): 150-174.

Borges, André. 2007. “Rethinking State Politics: The Withering of State Dominant Machines in Brazil”. Brazilian Political Science Review 1 (2): 108-36.

Calvo, Ernesto and María VictoriaMurillo. 2005. “Who Delivers? Partisan Clients in the Argentine Electoral Market”. American Journal of Political Science 48 (4): 742-57.

Duncan, Gustavo. 2014. Más que plata o plomo. El poder político del narcotráfico en colombia. Bogotá: Penguin Random House.

Fox, Jonathan. 1994.“The difficult Transition from Clientelism to Citizenship: Lessons from Mexico”. World Politics 46 (2): 151-84.

García, Miguel. 2000. “Elección popular de alcaldes y terceras fuerzas. El sistema de partidos en el ámbito municipal. 1988-1997”. Análisis Político 41: 84-97.

García, Miguel. 2009. “Sobre balas y votos: violencia política y participación electoral en Colombia, 1990-1994”. In Entre la persistencia y el cambio: reconfiguración del escenario partidista electoral de Colombia. 298-301. . Bogotá: Universidad del Rosario.

Gervasoni, Carlos. 2010. “A Rentier Theory of Subnational Regimes. Fiscal Federalism, Democracy, and Authoritarianism in the Argentine Provinces”. World Politics 62 (2): 302-340.

Gervasoni, Carlos. 2011. “Democracia, autoritarismo e hibridez en las provincias argentinas: la medición y causas de los regímenes subnacionales”. Journal of Democracy en Español 3: 75-93.

Gibson, Edward and JulietaSuárez Cao. 2010. “Federalized Party Systems and Subnational Party Competition: Theory and an Empirical Application to Argentina”. Compartive Politics 43 (1): 21-39.

Gibson, Edward. 2005. “Boundary Control: Subnational Authoritarianism in Democratic Countries”. World Politics 58: 101-32.

Gibson, Edward. 2010. “Politics of the Periphery: An Introduction to Subnational Authoritarianism and Democratization in Latin America”. Journal of Politics in Latin America 2 (2): 3-12.

Giraudy, Agustina. 2011, “La política territorial de la democracia subnacional”. Journal of Democracy en Español 3: 42-55.

Goldberg, Ellis, EricWibbels and EricMvukiyehe. 2008. “Lessons from Strange Cases Democracy, Development, and the Resource Curse in the U.S. States”. Comparative Political Studies 41 (4/5): 477-514.

González, Fernán. 2014. Poder y violencia en Colombia. Bogotá: ODECOFI.

Gutiérrez, Francisco and MauricioBarón. 2008. “Órdenes subsidiarios: coca, esmeraldas: la guerra y la paz”. Colombia Internacional 67: 102-129.

Gutiérrez Sanín, Francisco. 2001. “¿Se ha abierto el sistema político colombiano? Una evaluación de los procesos de cambio (1970-1998)”. América Latina Hoy 2: 198-215.

Heller, Patrick. 2000. “Degrees of Democracy: Some Comparative Lessons from India”. World Politics 52 (4): 484-519.

Herrmann, Julian D. 2010. “Neo-Patrimonialism and Subnational Authoritarianism in Mexico. The Case of Oaxaca”. Journal of Politics in Latin America 2 (2): 85-112.

Hoffman, Barak and ClarkGibson. 2005. Fiscal Governance and Public Services: Evidence from Tanzania an Zambia. San Diego: University of California Press.

Hoyos, Diana. 2005, “Evolución del sistema de partidos en Colombia, 1972-2000. Una mirada a nivel local y regional”. Análisis Político 55: 21-48.

Hoyos, Diana. 2009. “Dinámicas político-electorales en zonas de influencia paramilitar. Análisis de la competencia y la participación electoral”. Análisis Político 65: 13-32.

Leiteritz, Ralf & Manuel EduardoRiaño. 2018. “Tras el corazón verde: los vaivenes del conflicto en la región esmeraldera de Colombia”. In ¿Diferentes recursos, conflictos distintos? La economía política regional del conflicto aramdo y la criminalidad en Colombia. edited by AngelikaRettberg, Ralf J.Leiteritz, CarloNasi & Juan DiegoPrieto. 293-340. Bogota: Universidad de los Andes: .

McMann, Kelly & NikolaiPetrov. 2000. “A Survey of Democracy in Russia’s Regions”. Post-Soviet Geography and Economics 41 (3): 155-82.

Montero, Alfred. 2010. “Trading Spaces: The Endogenous Dynamics of Subnational Authoritarianism in Brazil”. XXIX International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, October 6-9, 2010, Toronto, Canada.

Nagin, Daniel. 2005. Group-Based Modeling of Development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Pachón, Mónica, & FabioSanchéz. 2014. Base de datos sobre resultados electorales Cede, 155-82. Bogotá: Documentos CEDE.

Pino, Juan Federico. 2013. Régimen y territorio. Trayectorias de desarrollo del régimen político a subnivel nacional en Colombia, 1998-2011. Bogotá: Universidad de los Andes.

Pinzón de Lewin, Patricia. 1989. Pueblos, regiones y partidos políticos: la regionalización electoral, atlas electoral colombiano. Bogotá: Uniandes-CIDER.

Rebolledo, Juan. 2011. Black Sheep of the Familiy. A Model of Subnational Authoritarian Endurance in National Democracy. Boston: Yale University Press.

Ross, Michael L. 2001. “Does Oil Hinder Democracy?” World Politics 53 (3): 325-361.

Swenden, Wilfried & BartMaddens. eds. 2008. Territorial Party Politics in Western Europe. Palgrave Macmillan: New York.

Téllez, Pedro Claver. 2011. Verde. La historia secreta de la guerra entre esmeralderos. Bogotá: Intermedio Editores.

Uribe, María Victoria. 1992. Limpiar la terra. Guerra y poder entre esmeralderos. Bogotá: CINEP.

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.