Peace and Rural Development in Colombia

In Peace and Rural Development in Colombia Andrs Garca Trujillo investigates whether peace agreements geared toward terminating internal armed conflicts trigger rural distributive changes. Combining academic rigor with an insiders perspective, Garca Trujillo shows that the peace agreement in Colombia opened an exceptional window for addressing rural inequality. Yet, despite some progress, he argues that the agreements leverage to stir change was severely constrained by opposing actors within and outside the government. Garca 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.