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This paper concerns the study of Colombian foreign policy. Specifically, it applies foreign policy analysis (fpa) methods to the study of Colombian international politics and international relations. Embarking from the analytical framework of International Regimes, the work describes a specific approach to their study, and thereafter traces the process that preceded Colombia's accession to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (oecd). It analyzes how the decision to join the oecd is best understood as a foreign policy strategy on the part of the national government. The paper also offers a preliminary evaluation of the process of institutional adaptation accompanying oecd membership and its impact on Colombian society. The article is based on the analysis of primary sources related to the decision-making process carried out by both the national government and the oecd. Additionally, it uses a variety of other sources to illuminate a foreign policy strategy implemented in a complicated international context, one only made more difficult by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. In this manner, the paper discusses the challenges and importance of oecd membership, including the delay of its formalization to the point of coinciding with the Covid-19 pandemic. Such unfortunate timing has likely contributed to the perception among many Colombians, of the fruitlessness of membership. While indeed complex and challenging, the paper seeks to present the situation of Colombian membership in more nuanced light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the gap between the expected and real effects of Colombian trade liberalization policy. First, we stress the influence of international integration on Colombia's growth and development, and explains why moving toward more free trade has not contributed to the consolidation of high value-added industries in that country. Ultimately, we apply the theory of political cycles and suggest that political power in Colombia has contributed to get the country trapped into an international dependency on primary commodities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present work consists, from a review of the current reality of the migration situation between Colombia and Venezuela, to carry out an analysis of the various administrative advances of border management. Despite the great importance that Venezuelan migrations have aroused in Colombia over the past five years, understanding the various political, economic and social elements of the internal affairs of both countries can provide the basic elements for understanding the correct logic for the proper administrative management of the border. It is expected that the reader achieves with this paper, in addition to having a vision about the state of bilateral migrations between Colombia and Venezuela, develop a deeper perspective on the challenges to governance of the Colombian-Venezuelan border. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first application to Colombia of culturomics, a novel research method in the social sciences that describes cultural, social and linguistics trends based on the quantitative analysis of millions of digitized texts. The paper uses all news and editorials published during the past two decades in three national periodicals in order to analyze the trajectories of several social and economic phenomena: corruption, economic optimism, the relative power of the judicial branch, etc. Beyond its specific findings, this paper showcases how culturomics can be used to describe the changing reality of a developing country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, various Latin American governments have attempted to render migrants as agents of development, mainly by channeling remittances to specific sectors such as housing and finance. The existing literature has yet to articulate how these new developments are reconfiguring the political economy of housing in the region. Drawing on empirical data collected at both ends of the Colombia-uk migration network, this paper argues that these efforts aim to institutionalise remittance flows and their associated transnational socio-economic activities. They are underpinned by the repositioning of housing from a consumption to an investment item, and as a driver of economic growth; as well the positioning of the financial sector as the main means for households to access public and private housing, and other basic services. These developments have taken place in the context of a broader process of financialisa-tion of the global poverty agenda in the last three decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women population migrations are very significant in the broader international migration phenomenon, not only because of the number of people involved, but also because they have their own particular characteristics which distinguish them from male migrations. Gender perspective, being applied to migration studies, has been very useful in demonstrating that migration is a gendered phenomenon and it has added depth to the specific understanding of female migration. This article focuses on Colombian flows to Italy, a scarcely studied phenomenon with interesting particularities, such as: its strong heterogeneity, the high female presence, and the variety of itineraries female have. Framed within the gender perspective, this paper aims to observe the differences between men's and women's migration experiences, in order to define some of the gender inequalities and their intersection with other inequalities that arise from certain social categories involved during the migration. It focuses on the family, an important place of analysis since within it gender relations are expressed with great determination and at the same time it changes with migration, contributing to modify women's social and family status. Changes in gender relations do not point only in one direction in such flows, as women have different trajectories showing that they are often active, independent and autonomous actors, able to articulate advantages and disadvantages present during the migration process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a number of years now, analyses of the political participation of women have warned of a very low presence of these in the various parliaments of the world. The diagnosis of female underrepresentation was a warning sign for different international organisms, which initiating from successive calls started to plan a review of the situation so that various countries would commit themselves to adopt measures to modify it. This paper has the goal of describing the current outlook of women and politics in Latin America, with special attention paid to the Colombian case, focusing fundamentally on the adoption of gender quotas as a strategy of positive discrimination that might contribute to a larger participation of women in the politics of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the characteristics of job flows in the Colombian manufacturing sector between 1994 and 2009, at the industry group level and for the occupational categories. The results suggest high levels of job creation and job destruction in manufacturing firms, which are not usually evident in the figures of net employment growth. Similarly, we find that job creation and job destruction are persistent. Finally, the results at a disaggregated level indicate significant differences by industry group and occupational category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an empirical verification of the "political business cycle" hypotheses applied to 547 Colombian municipalities from 1989 to 2008. The econometric study reveals that smaller towns exhibit a cycle in public investment and fiscal deficit: both variables increase before elections and fall after them. These results are placed in the Colombian social context to discuss why the cycle occurs in those municipalities and the coincidence with differences in the efficiency of public expenditure to reduce poverty, as measured by unsatisfied basic needs. Some policies are recommended in order to reduce the adverse effects of this cycle and improve efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political reform of 2003, has been the most important in electoral matters made after the 1991 Constitution. The phenomena of "microempresas electorales", "operación avispa" and personalization, brought about a need to reform and reorganize the system and political parties with two fundamental changes: the electoral formula and the electoral barrier. Since the adoption of the reform there have been four elections in Colombia, two regional (Assembly and Council in 2003 and 2007) and two national (Senate and House of Representatives in 2006 and 2010), which have had mechanical effects on the party system at both the national and sub-national levels, and have "reorganized" the political forces in each legislature. The overall objective of this paper is to observe the effects of the reforms on the national party system in both the first (2006) and second (2010) wave of elections, specifically about the representativeness of the system, taking into account their context and political situation. We conclude that the change in the electoral formula and the imposition of the electoral barrier managed to reorganize the parties and therefore political competition without affecting system proportionality, as its detractors had claimed. Although this aspect had no significant variation, factors such as electoral density lead to other questions over the Colombian electoral system such as the necessity (or not) to think about a new reform that points to a change in the electoral districts and therefore in the levels of representation of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to understand from a regional perspective the causes of the civil war of 1876-1877 in the Northeastern Colombian Andes. An approximation is made to the urban hierarchy in the current Colombian departments of Santander and Norte de Santander between 1853 and 1875. The conditions leading to conflict and the change in that hierarchy are presented. In addition, intervening players and the location of the events of the war are identified. It concludes that the group that fell in urban hierarchy was the one that started the war and that this hierarchical change was one of the causes of the war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1980, Venezuelan income per capita in dollars was 1.4 times higher than that of Colombia, but in 2007, this ratio was reversed and the Colombian income was 1.1 higher than that of Venezuela. This result deserves an explanation, as both countries made similar structural reforms to allow a free economy and to integrate with international markets. This paper aims to explain this result. The main conclusion is that the State-entrepreneur relationship and the real exchange rate management are crucial for the explanation of the difference in the economic performance of both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]