A critique of “resource-based” theories of colombia’s civil war

In recent years, several Colombian scholars have studied this country’s 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, no...

Full description

Autores:
Medina, Luis Fernando
Tipo de recurso:
Article of journal
Fecha de publicación:
2008
Institución:
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Repositorio:
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Idioma:
spa
OAI Identifier:
oai:repositorio.unal.edu.co:unal/50062
Acceso en línea:
https://repositorio.unal.edu.co/handle/unal/50062
http://bdigital.unal.edu.co/43590/
http://bdigital.unal.edu.co/43590/2/47565
Palabra clave:
Guerra Civil
Colombia
Teorías
prueba empírica
Civil War
Colombia
theories
empirical test
Rights
openAccess
License
Atribución-NoComercial 4.0 Internacional
Description
Summary:In recent years, several Colombian scholars have studied this country’s 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 Colombia’s 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 flawed, a flaw 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.