Cyborg political machines: Political brokering and modern political campaigning in Colombia

• Main Author: Vidart-Delgado, Maria L. (Author)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anthropology Program (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Chicago Press, 2020-04-02T14:43:54Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

 Colombian professional political consultants couple information technologies and local political brokering to circumvent strict voter privacy regulations that limit campaigns' access to voters' personal data. I argue that political consultants use information technologies to bolster traditional vertical, personality-centered political organizations, and to produce tightly controlled "cyborg political machines." I challenge widespread notions that oppose media-based politics to traditional face-to-face politics (known also as clientelism). Instead, I show that although political elites introduced American political marketing methods hoping to modernize campaigns, the American way provided a new framework to preserve traditional authoritarian political arrangements after the extensive democratic reforms of the early 1990s.