Colapso parcial o presencia diferenciada del Estado en Colombia?: una mirada desde la historia.

The text argues that the problem of democratic viability can be a-pproached through three perspectives. The first two, the Western ideal model of democracy and the idealization of the past as a period of har-mony and order, lead to interpretations of the Colombian state as failed or collapsed. On the contrary, the third perspective, which refers to a gradual process of state-building, suggests that the Colombian state is re-formulated on a daily basis. The author examines the democratization process in Colombia in order to refute the failed state thesis.