Abstract

ACOSTA OLAYA, Cristian. Dike and Troubled Waters of Gaitanismo. Political Violence and Populism in the Mid-20th Century in Colombia. Estud. Polit. [online]. 2018, n.52, pp.128-148. ISSN 0121-5167.  https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.espo.n52a07.

Despite the many existent studies about Colombian Gaitanismo, this political process’ characterization as a populist one has been a very troublesome matter. This work proposes not only to show the analytical pertinence of the concept of populism – from the contemporary studies about political identities – in order to understand the configuration of the Gaitanist movement, but also to propose a subsequent debate: the complex link between political violence and the populist phenomenon. The hypothesis of this paper is to distinguish both political processes taking as a case the Gaitanist discursivity of the mid-20th century in Colombia. Thus, the Leitmotiv of interweaving the theoretical analysis with the historical study is to show the typical tensions of the Latin American populist processes in an important prevailing violent context in the region, that is, the Colombian one. Finally, the analysis considers that the populism, instead of promoting a disproportionate violence toward others, proclaims a radical transformation of the communitary as a whole, and simultaneously polarizes the political field where it takes place.

Keywords : Populism; Gaitanismo; Political Violence; Political Identities.

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