About places dominated by inequality and how they cause State institutions to become inefficient

• Main Authors: Andrea Lisette Aparicio Castro, José Manuel Moreno Castro
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Nacional de Colombia 2015-07-01
• Series: Revista Colombiana de Sociología
• Subjects: capacidades; desigualdad; Estado; inequidad; institucionalidad; justicia.
• Online Access: https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/recs/article/view/54885

According to some worldwide government indicators, Colombia is classified as being below countries not only in North America but also in Latin America. The current article studies government institutions, specifically in terms of inequality. Its main objective is to determine the relationship between the efficacy of institutions—understood as complying with the minimum number of activities that should effect a State, among those the distribution of wealth and the orientation toward the distribution of capabilities (equality)—and the most unequal zones—which in this framework of analysis are defined as the territories with the most economic, social, and cultural discrepancies among their inhabitants. The research is divided into three phases, through which is evidenced that in some Colombian villages a relationship exists, not precisely inverse, between the territories that experience the presence of State institutions and those with the most inequalities. Indicators from national and international institutions were used such as the rate of efficiency of justice, the reasoning behind the presence of judges and the territory, the index of fiscal performance, the index of vulnerability due to institutional presence, the rate of informality in property holdings, the multidimensional index of poverty and the index of Unfulfilled Basic Necessities (NBI). The results indicate that the institutions in Colombia have little or no effect on the distribution of wealth. Taking into account the aforementioned indexes, seven regions were selected for the development of the study: 1) the villages of Santander, 2) the border towns between Arauca and Casanare, 3) the towns located between Cundinamarca and Huila, 4) the towns of the department of Cesar, 5) the towns located between North Santander and Boyacá, 6) the towns of Caquetá, and 7) those located in the west of Casanare.