Updated to include the historic 2022 presidential election, this deeply informed and accessible book traces the history of Colombia thematically over the past two centuries. LaRosa and Mejía move beyond the common perception of a failed state to explore the rich heritage and dynamism that have characterized Colombia past and present.

With the sharp growth slowdown in 2023 from an overheated post-pandemic recovery, the Colombian economy has reached more sustainable levels of economic activity and domestic demand, with a marked reduction in domestic and external imbalances owing to appropriately tight macroeconomic policies. Market confidence has improved, but risk premia remain high compared to peers. Meanwhile, progress on the social reforms in Congress has been limited.

Explore diverse landscapes, travel back in time, and discover unique populations, all without leaving your chair! Start your international tour in Colombia, land of Gabriel García Márquez, coffee, incredible biodiversity, and so much more. This colorful, informative book introduces Colombia's history, geography, culture, climate, government, economy, and other significant features. Sidebars, maps, fact pages, a glossary, a timeline, historic images and full-color photos, and well-placed graphs and charts enhance this engaging title. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

Annotation Global Economic Prospects and the Developing Countries 2001 discusses three issues that are central to the challenges facing developing countries as they participate in the global trading system: * Many developing countries, particularly some of the poorest ones, have had little success sharing in the expansion of global trade, because of both protectionist policies and inappropriate macroeconomic and trade policies. * In trade negotiations, the global economy faces the critical governance issue of adequate standards for health and safety, labor practices, environmental protection, and intellectual property rights. It will be equally important to ensure that the standards are appropriate and nondiscriminatory, that developing countries participate fully in their formulation, and that compliance is monitored. * The influence of technological innovations and what electronic commerce means for trade and production in developing economies. Global Economic Prospects offers an in-depth analysis of the economic prospects of developing economies as they enter the new millennium. It examines growth and prospects for poverty reduction in the developing world and considers economic output, trade, and financial developments in industrial economies. This edition also includes detailed statistical tables and an analysis of development for each developing country region.

In what is destined to prove the definitive text for the present generation on the political, economic, and social structure of Colombia, Jorge Pablo Osterling explores the enigmatic nature of this special, even critical, anchor to the northern tier of South America. In many ways, Colombia is a huge success story: it is one of the oldest, most stable, functioning democracies; the land is blessed with rich and diversified resources and products; and its foreign debt has been kept in check as a consequence of sound economic management.But despite its positive social, cultural, economic, and political indicators, Colombia has been a nation beset by serious problems: overt corruption and unemployment are very high; and its public service facilities to outlying rural areas remain weak, thus making schooling, water supplies, health care, and electrification hard to establish at high levels. Above all, Colombia has a reputation, well earned, as one of the most violent nations in the world. Drug trafficking, common crime, and guerrilla activity are all pandemic and conspire to destabilize the regime.In this straightforward, compelling account, Osterling shows how this paradox has evolved, and why it has persisted over the past fifty years. He draws attention to parallel political structures: a functioning set of civilian institutions that coexist alongside one of the most powerful closed, hierarchical political elites in Latin America. Osterling locates the central problem of the maintenance of interpersonal relations as being more important to the functioning of Colombian society than impersonal norms. This is a country in which political bosses vie with popular democracy for control of the country.

In Peace and Rural Development in Colombia Andrés García Trujillo investigates whether peace agreements geared toward terminating internal armed conflicts trigger rural distributive changes. Combining academic rigor with an insider’s perspective, García Trujillo shows that the peace agreement in Colombia opened an exceptional window for addressing rural inequality. Yet, despite some progress, he argues that the agreement’s leverage to stir change was severely constrained by opposing actors within and outside the government. García Trujillo later applies the framework developed for the Colombian case to explain key dynamics of other post-conflict societies that have dealt with agrarian issues under a transitional context, like El Salvador or South Africa. The original theoretical framework and empirically rich analysis make Peace and Rural Development in Colombia an indispensable read for scholars and practitioners who wish to gain an understanding on the political economy of peacemaking, policy change, and rural development in Colombia and beyond.