... 3 percent of land owners owned more than 70 percent of agricultural land"( CIIR 1992:pg 11).The presence of a bipartisan system based on clientelism may have an effect on the consolidation of democracy in Colombia. Colombia's democracy is made up of two-party systems, which are the conservative and liberal parties. These two can be traced to the time it got its independence in 1810. "Between 1810 and 1861 the independence struggle was marked by fierce quarrels among the Creole elite, some wanting a unitary regime and other a federal alliance. This debate, fuelled by the deep regionalism and competing interests of the elite was to continue into independence"( Pearce 1990: pg 15). These parties established themselves remarkably through its independence as an institutional vehicle for it local and class rivalry which became an active means of participation in politics that occasionally resulted to armed conflict. "Colombia subsequently fell into the hands of ...

See this essay or coursework document in full right now