Procesos democráticos en contextos de violencia: México y Colombia

This collective work presents a set of studies on the processes of democratization in Mexico and Colombia. Although the processes of formation of the national State and democratization were different in the two countries, both present common characteristics, such as not having known military dictatorships of the type of South America and experiencing scenarios of social, political and criminal violence. Such scenarios go beyond the normative, linear and teleological biases of the theories of democratic transition. In this sense, the book takes three turns in the analysis of processes: First, it distances itself from well-known national phenomena in order to focus on the regional and local spheres; second, it shifts the gaze from the institutional sphere to the social sphere, taking an interest in the relations that are woven between social actors and political elites, as well as in their respective dynamics; third, he refrains from sustaining a predetermined conception of democracy in order to develop a comprehensive perspective that examines the meaning that the very actors studied (both the participants in collective action and the political elites) give to the category of "democracy", the concept that they handle of "State", and the content that they themselves confer on the notion of "rights", thus opening up new perspectives.