Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Since the National Front years, the Colombian two-party system has maintained a level of stability uncommon to other nations in the Latin America. Given the historical strength of the Liberal and Conservative parties and their ability to pursue any program within their non-ideological ranks, there was little incentive to form new parties. However, a rash of new parties has appeared in recent years. This paper examines the factors that have lead to the increased share of seats awarded to 'other' parties, from 1982 to 1998, and points to some of their effects on the party system over time.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Since 1998 the Bolivian Government has waged an aggressive counternarcotics strategy throughout the country. Official policy has included 'zero tolerance' and 'zero coca,' whereby the previous and current governments have pledged to eradicate all illegal coca crops in the country. The policy has caused social unrest, grassroots organizing, and violations of constitutional and human rights. Bolivia's democratic transition and consolidation have been negatively affected. Nevertheless, the policy has appeared to be successful on the eradication front.
In contrast, in Colombia since 2000, the externally financed Plan Colombia has been less successful in drug eradication, and has involved greater constitutional and human rights violations. Democratization has also been hindered.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In recent years, decentralization and regional autonomy measures have figured prominently in negotiations designed to end some of the world’s most important conflicts, including in Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan. While reforms that shift powers to subnational units deserve the attention of those who are trying to promote security via institutional design, the risks associated with these territorial reforms are considerable. When political and economic resources are transferred to subnational governments in the attempt to create meaningful access to the political system for former combatants, the great risk is that these same resources can be used to finance a continuation of the armed struggle instead. In response to the popularity of territorial reforms in many post-conflict settings, this paper sounds a cautionary note by evaluating the negative impact of decentralization on security in Colombia, site of Latin America’s longest and deadliest civil war. After analyzing the design decisions of reformers who hoped that decentralization would help end the civil war, I argue that decentralization in fact financed the expansion of armed clientelism by illegal groups on both the left and right. Thanks to the weakness of the police in much of the national territory, guerrillas and paramilitaries have been able to use decentralized resources to destabilize the state, limiting even further its monopoly over the use of force and creating what are in effect parallel states on the left and right.

Publication Type: Proceeding

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: By mapping the movement of commodities from production to exchange to consumption, the global commodity chains (GCC) analysis has been helpful in clarifying the unequal distribution of profits across the world system. While analyses of upgrading (the movement of states and firms up the GCC to more profitable economic niches) has been used to demonstrate the process of economic development at the level of the nation and at the level of the individual business firm, comparatively little attention has been paid to the impact of upgrading on systems of labor control on the ground. The present analysis looks at the historical development of Colombia’s leading coffee capitalist organization (National Federation of Coffee Growers, FEDECAFE), comparing two historical moments of upgrading. The first upgrade came as a response to mass worker mobilization in the 1930s, culminating in hegemonic mechanisms of labor control. The second upgrade came as a response to the incapacity to maintain such mechanisms in the 1980s, which culminated in a resurgent labor movement.