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Análisis Político
Print version ISSN 0121-4705
Abstract
MEDINA, Luis Fernando. A critique of "resource-based" theories of colombias civil war. anal.polit. [online]. 2008, vol.21, n.62, pp.44-57. ISSN 0121-4705.
In recent years, several Colombian scholars have studied this countrys civil conflict through the lenses of economic reasoning and state-of-the-art statistical testing. Their analyses place most of the explanatory burden of the conflict on the existence of lootable resources and organized crime, not on any specific socio-economic factor of Colombias reality ("objective causes"). This paper criticizes their claims while accepting their criteria and methods. In particular, it contends that their formal approach to civil conflicts is fl awed, a fl aw that carries over to the type of empirical tests conducted and that there are several gaps in the reasoning from statistical results to the overall interpretation of the conflict.
Keywords : Civil War; Colombia; theories; empirical test.