Political participation at the local level: Bucaramanga and the construction of the collective

Abstract

Democracy means self-government of the people by the people and this applies, mainly, at local level, as in this space of social life articulation it is assumed that the political and administrative institutions are really governed by the grassroots initiatives or by their representatives. Similarly, democratic relationships depend on the strength of institutions as well as on the degree of public confidence in them and in the political process. The latter, in turn, depends on the degree of effectiveness of the guarantees the population has for the exercise of participation at micro level. However, a vital issue for democratic life is how the community appropriates these formal mechanisms to build its own conditions of good life and creates the necessary space for the construction of values and common goods outside the constraints of a rampant market, which generates poverty, inequality and exclusion. In this sense, this article seeks to establish the regulatory framework of political participation in Colombia at national and local level, in order to indicate the limits and possibilities of their effective realization in Bucaramanga.