Title : Political Participation and War in Colombia: An Analysis of the 2002 Elections
Working Paper No : 38 (series 1)
Author(s) : Miguel García and Gary Hoskin
Date : November 2003
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Abstract : This study
analyses the impact of the war on political participation in the
March 2002 elections to the lower house of the Colombian
Congress. The specific research question is whether the dynamics
of violence in Colombia has affected the way voters behaved in
those elections. In order to provide some answers, this article
seeks to pinpoint the relationship between war and democracy by
focusing upon a key component of democratic regimes, namely
political participation.
The article is organized in five sections. The first consists of
a theoretical overview of democracy and political participation.
The second section, drawn principally from the press, provides
evidence of the impact of the war upon the congressional and
presidential campaigns. The third part discusses the evolution
of political participation in Colombia. The fourth section is a
quantitative analysis of the relationship between violence and
political participation. Finally, the last section offers some
conclusions about political participation and violence in
Colombia.
Although Colombian democracy is under assault from armed actors
and undermined by socio-economic factors, its viability has not
been contested to the point of regime collapse, nor is that
likely to occur in the near future. While it is appropriate to
label Colombia a crisis state, neither the parameters nor the
intensity of the crisis permit either theoretical or empirical
conclusions as to the calibre or endurance of its democratic
regime. For the past fifty years or so, the Colombian State has
been characterized by perpetual crisis, and that is not likely
to change in the foreseeable future.