This study analyses security policy in Colombia between 2002 and 2018 and the role the national police force played in this strategy. During the timeframe researched, an unprecedented number of... Show moreThis study analyses security policy in Colombia between 2002 and 2018 and the role the national police force played in this strategy. During the timeframe researched, an unprecedented number of public policies were created. It also constitutes the most critical period of the internal armed conflict between state security forces, guerrillas, paramilitary groups and drug traffickers. A peace process was also initiated at this time, leading to a new phase of transition. As a result, traditional state-centrism models of security have been rethought but not yet implemented. The thesis explores a series of public policies on security, highlighting the important institutional way of dealing with public problems in Colombia, where confusion about different actors’ roles in managing security has persisted. This situation reflects the reductionism surrounding national security, which has been accentuated by the very circumstances surrounding the armed conflict and drug trafficking in the second half of the twentieth century. Show less
According to different diagnoses, the advent of democracy in Chile was characterised by a fragmentation of and crisis within social movements, due to the lack of demonstrations by civilian society... Show moreAccording to different diagnoses, the advent of democracy in Chile was characterised by a fragmentation of and crisis within social movements, due to the lack of demonstrations by civilian society and even due to an absence of civilians. The aim of this study is to examine and open up debate on activation processes and the deactivation of Chilean civil society in particular, paying special attention to the period of democratic reconstruction during the four Concertación governments as a time of social demobilisation. In the same way, this study goes into more depth and broadens academic discussion on the factors that influenced this deactivation. It poses that social demobilisation between 1990 and 2010 was heavily influenced by traumatic post-dictatorial memories, by civil society’s relationship with the state and the paradigm of governability and, finally, by the market and logic of neoliberal modernity. The influence of political, psychological and economic factors as important inhibitors of eventual mobilising actions in the transition become, at the same time, components of this new socio-political mould. With this, new identities became possible and were also brought to light during the 2011 cycle of demonstrations. Show less