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Colombia: a paradoxical state

17/01/2008 By Kees Koonings, Dirk Krujit

Raul Arboleda / AFP / Getty Images

Colombia is a paradoxical state, one of stable instability and unstable stability. The spheres of stability and instability, equally persistent, are linked to the country’s recent economic, social and institutional history.

The explanation for this contradictory situation lies in the fact that functioning democratic institutions regulate a large part of the country’s territory while, at the same time, Colombia is the world’s largest cocaine producer and exporter and suffers from the consequences of an armed guerrilla conflict which has been going on for sixty years.

There are no significant external security threats, military or otherwise. However, internal violence has seen thousands of people lose their lives and between 1.9 million and 3 million people have been displaced in the last ten years.

Yet in terms of public institutions and organisations at the local level in most of its cities, the institutional life of the country is solid. The same can be said of its civil society and the media. The public sector in Colombia is generally efficient and competent and some of its universities are amongst the best in the hemisphere.

From the beginning of the current decade, local governments in places like Bogotá, Medellín, Cali and Bucaramanga have made notable improvements in terms of infrastructure, public transport, education, health and security. The subordination of state forces to civil authority is firmly established and is accepted without question. Colombia’s army does not see itself as a political player, in spite of the de facto autonomy which it enjoyed in the past in areas where the conflict was rife.

The judiciary has been able to strengthen its independence and effectiveness in recent years. Colombia has pioneered the introduction of special legislation tailored to the needs of indigenous ethnic groups within its general framework of jurisprudence and legal practice. A whole range of civil, social and cultural rights have been ratified, and mechanisms have been established for direct access by ordinary citizens to ordinary justice.

In this Comment article Dirk Krujit and Kees Koonings of Utrecht University explore the unique political and economic factors that give Colombia its firm foundations, despite the country’s troubled reputation.

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Keywords

Colombia Conflict Latin America & Caribbean Political Reform Security Terrorism

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Bio author: Kees Koonings

Kees Koonings is Associate Professor of Development Studies in the Faculty of Social Sciences, Utrecht University.

Bio author: Dirk Krujit

Dirk Kruijt is Professor of Development Studies in the Faculty of Social Sciences, Utrecht University.