eopardizing the position of the affected nations in the ever-increasingly complex environment of the global political economy. The whole effect has been to make these countries suffer tremen dously across social, economic, and political strata, with no end in sight.
In sum, the stick of violence to combat violence has been an ineffective tool of social engineering, still less of social stability and civility. This research will take the view that it is time to try some variety of the carrot as (to mix metaphors) a tool of public policy and civil society. While political and economic evidence will be important to the research, the principal focus will be on the sociological consequences of political and economic events and configurations of the historical facts of La Violencia as well as of possible lines for developing venues, mind-sets, policies, and praxis aimed at stopping the violence and building a climate of trust and security consistent with the values of what are meant to be democratic civil societies.
The revolutionary turmoil that swept through South America early in the nineteenth century stripped Spain of her mainland American colonies and created a number of new independent states. After three hundred years of domination by the Spanish monarchy, the new nations were free to form their laws in accordance with their own aspirations and political ideals. The advent of independence brought two distinct philosophies of self-rule into conflict, one the authoritarian and hierarchical structures fostered by the combination of Roman Catholicism and the Spanish (Bourbon) monarchy and the other associated with revolutionary, democratic ideals emanating from North America and Europe during the period. According to McFarlane, the overriding point about the transition of Colombia from colonial to independent status was that, irrespective of the pressures of democratic independence, Spain's colonial policies and administration had i...