AN EXERCISE IN WORLDMAKING 2009 - ISS

118 ISABELLE TURCOTTE
improving revenue for investments in local service provision and industry
development. Administrative decentralization aimed at strengthening decision
making autonomy for improved project execution and overall
management of resources. Lastly, political decentralization aspired to augment
the accountability of state agents through the election of mayors
and governors. As stated by Fiszbein, local governments improved the
execution of their functions through selectivity and specialization, meaning
that municipalities focused on relatively fewer priorities, and avoided doing
everything by itself, rather implementing projects with the involvement
of external community actors (Fiszbein, 1997: 1039).
Political involvement, however, has historically stood as a principal
challenge to plural participation in the construction of domestic policy.
The composition of the new Constitution of 1991 came at an important
crossroad in Colombian history and had lasting political bearings. At this
time, struggle for power and dominance encouraged pervasive clashes
between different factions’ armed groups. The turbulences created confusion
and popular mobilization instigating projects of political reform.
This concretized through the platform of the National Assembly which,
for the first time in Colombian history, represented the principal societal
constituencies, implying the involvement of groups that had been formally
excluded from political debate. The negotiations put forth an ambitious
document recognized as “[one of the most] progressive project[s]
in contemporary constitutional thought” as it combined two principal
axes: that of a social constitution formalizing an extensive bill of rights, and
on the other fortifying the institutions required for continued efficient
management of economic affairs, both rivaling as paradigms in the new macropolitical
reality (Murillo and Gomez, 2005: 3).
The Constitutional court appeared as being one of the most important
new institutions in administering justice and ensuring compliance
with the Constitution. It has not only been used to reinforce the legislative
branch relative to very strong presidential power, a legacy of the
1886 Constitution, but also mediated the clash between the social rights
and neoliberal attitudes adopted by the elites in power. An interesting
debate on pensions arose. The Constitution officially grants this right of
subsistence to its citizens, yet economic arguments related to the insufficiency
of state funds to guarantee citizens this benefit has often been
used in justifying the non-compliance to this basic constitutional right
(Murillo and Gomez, 2005: 8). The position of the Constitutional court