THE POSTWAR COLOMBIAN CONGRESS: ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT, WOMEN’S RIGHTS AND THE LAW, 1942-1957

Abstract

This dissertation examines the role of Congress and the definition of representation in Colombia between 1942 and 1957. It studies political leaders’ attempts to improve economic management through planning, women’s struggle for the right to vote, and the evolution of the constitutional principles that structured Colombian politics in the twentieth century. The prevailing characterization of the Colombian political system maintains that Congress had almost no impact on its development. In contrast, this dissertation argues that the country’s long-lasting two-party democracy was based on Liberals and Conservatives’ commitment to come together in the legislature. The postwar was a conjuncture of instability—institutional breakdown, alarming levels of partisan violence and dictatorial experiments—partly because Congress as the foundation of the political system was in flux. Hence, the ebbs and flows of the postwar are presented here as the result of executive-legislative conflict over the allocation of resources in an increasingly diversified economy, gendered projects that sought to redefine not only the electorate but also the relationship between interests and representation, and contention over the definition of some of the basic tenets of a democracy—the rights of political minorities, the status of the vote as a right, and the definition of parliamentary politics either as deliberation in search of the common good or as competition and negotiation among interested parties. These three narrative lines shed light on rarely explored processes that shaped the contemporary Colombian state as it emerged during the postwar. Other themes examined in this dissertation are clientelism, violence, masculinity and honor, and the politics of history.