Weak States, Rights and Citizenship: The Case of Colombia

May 6, 2004 - 4:30 pm

Carmenza Gallo, Queens College and The Graduate Center, CUNY

Gallo is currently exploring two issues. First, the overall relationship between state capacity and rights: do weak states enact rights from the top down more often that strong states, what type of rights and with what consequences? How do they do it? Second, she will also look at the interplay among the different types of rights, civil, social, and political, in relation to state capacity, especially the nature of institutions involved in supporting different rights. Why are many weak states in Latin America expanding political rights, for example, and simultaneously dismantling basic civil and social rights? Prof. Gallo’s talk will be a work in progress presentation.

Carmenza Gallo will focus on the Colombian state during the last 30 years to study changes in state capacity and changes in rights, with particular attention at the nature of the relationship between political and civil and social rights.

Carmenza Gallo is an Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at Queens College and Graduate Center, City University of New York. She attended the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (BA), Harvard University (MPA), and Boston University (Ph.D.). Her publications include Tax and State Power: Political Instability in Bolivia 1930-1952 (Temple University Press 1991) and The Autonomy of Weak States (Sociological Perspectives 1997).

Her interests include the study of central states, fiscal systems, and political identities in Latin American countries. She is currently working on a comparative project on States and Citizenship in Colombia and Bolivia.