Colombia The Politics of Reforming the State

This book examines the process of political and social reform that Colombia has experienced in the past decade. As the relationship between the state, the economy and the society are redefined in Latin America, Colombia has also undergone substantial transformations. This story offers a Colombian dimension to the increasing interest in processes of state reform elsewhere. The approach is interdisciplinary and will be of interest to political scientists, economists, sociologists, geographers and historians.

Acknowledgements - List of Contributors - List of Figures - List of Tables Prologue: Belisario Bentancur - Introduction: Reflections on the Colombian State: In Search of a Modern Role; Eduardo Posada-Carbo - PART 1: THE COLOMBIAN STATE: HISTORY, PARTIES AND CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM - Colombian Experience with Liberalism: On the Historical Weakness of the State; Marco Palacios - The State and Political Parties in Colombia; Gary Hoskin - Democracy, State and Society in the 1991 Constitution: The role of the Constitutional Court; Manual Jose Cepeda - The Decentralised State: An Administrative or Political Challenge?; Gustavo Bell Lemus - PART 2: THE STATE AND SOCIETY - Violence and the State in Colombia; Alvaro Tirado Mej'a - State Weakness and Clientelism in Colombian Education; Jesos Duarte - On Subsidies and Home-Ownership: Housing Policies during the 1990s; Alan Gilbert - PART 3: THE STATE AND THE ECONOMIC APERTURA - The Colombian Apertura: An Assessment; Jorge Ram'rez Ocampo - Regulation and Deregulation: The Process of Reform in Colombia, 1990-1994; Armando Montenegro - Evolution and Rationality of Budget Institutions in Colombia; Rudolf Hommes - Bibliography - Index