Democratization from below: citizen-activated participatory democracy in Colombia's extractive industries

Political participation is widely accepted as a crucial element of conflict prevention and successful transitions from conflict to peace. Indeed, participatory institutions are often included in peace agreements. Yet we still know little about their use in practice. How are participatory reforms activated? Can they upend exclusionary power structures? This thesis explores these questions by examining the unlikely case of civil society-led participatory democracy in Colombia’s extractive sectors. Historically, contention between communities, the state, and private businesses over land use in Colombia has mirrored the country’s violent conflict. Yet beginning in 2013, civil society groups began turning toward the state and its participatory institutions—specifically consultas populares—to contest the development of new mining and oil projects in rural regions. While only ten communities succeeded in implementing the consulta, those that did transformed exclusionary dynamics of Colombia’s extractive sector, if only temporarily. Combining analysis of an original dataset of extractive-related consultas populares with in-country fieldwork and online interviews, this thesis uses mixed-methods to examine when and how civil society can activate and implement participatory democracy from below. I apply the analogy of Archimedes’ Lever to explain the rare successes of consulta implementation. With the right tools (participatory institutions) and the right circumstances (de jure support and weakened veto players), weak actors can lift the heavy weight of transformative participation.