Thesis (S.J.D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1972. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 304-315).

This thesis consists of a set of interrelated essays that illustrate the persistence of the Conservative party in Colombia in the early twentieth century. No particular landmarks or turning-points can be identified in recent Colombian history. The dates 1930 and 1953 are, therefore, in part, dates of convenience: but they carry some, if limited, significance. In 1930 the Conservative party was ousted from office after over forty years of office, and was replaced by a coalition government with a Liberal president. In 1953 a Conservative government was again removed from power: on this occasion by a military government with an initially Conservative complexion. The period chosen makes possible the study of the Conservative party in contrasting postures: in opposition, in power and in coalition with Liberals. Because the period of study is no more clearly defined than this references outside it have been made freely The work has been organized in the following manner: Chapter One performs a double function. It contains both a general narrative of political events at a national level and an examination of mutations in the relationships between and within the elites of the two parties: Conservative and Liberal. An extensive treatment serves to underline the flexibility and durability of the Conservative party: the strivings of its members after a distinct party identity, their attitudes to coalition, the practice of co-option and economic policy are discussed. Regional and local considerations have been mentioned in this section only where they bear immediately on party relationships at a national level. The Colombian political elite, in the period under review, put a heavy stress upon abstract political speculation. Chapter Two gives an account of how ideological postures were used to substantiate partisan and personal positions and of how ideological restatements gave sporadic sensations of renewal to the Conservative party. Chapters Three and Four consider the relationships between the Conservative party and principal institutions - the Church, the army and the police. The role of the Church was crucial because it was expected by Conservatives - at least, until 1949 - to act as the primary bulwark of the social and political order. Despite its claim to a single identity, the Church rarely behaved coherently, largely as a consequence of contrasting regional patterns of social, religious and political behaviour. The ways these were projected nationally are considered at length. The failure of the Church to maintain the public order led Conservatives to fall back on the army and police. Liberals, for much of the period studied, considered the army to be a Conservative institution and built up the police as a countervailing force. Certain Conservatives strove to preserve the army as a partisan institution, and, from 1946, tried to convert the police force into a Conservative instrument. The destabilizing impact of the relationships of the parties with the coercive arms of the state is considered; and the relationship of civilian Conservative and miltary leaders before the coup of 1953 is stressed. Chapter Five contains a brief study of Conservatives and elections. It falls into two parts: some qualitative statements about electoral behaviour are substantiated by some quantitative data. Chapter Six considers the national leadership of the Conservative party by focusing upon two of its outstanding figures: Laureano Gómez, unequalled leader in the period undertaken and president in 1950, who represented the tradition of confrontation at its most persistent and articulate; and Mariano Ospina Pérez, president in 1946 and arguably the most important Conservative figure after 1953, who represented a tradition of conciliation and concession. Some conclusions about patterns of leadership with reference to other Conservative leaders then follow. Conservative activity in the regions is considered in Chapter Seven. The department of Antioquia receives particular attention, and the Santanders some. This section stresses variations in political style and underlines the proclivity of the party structure to fission and breakdown. Some general perspectives on the Conservative party then follow. Appendix One contains a brief account of the role of the press in Colombia. Appendices Two and Three serve to illustaate the election materials in Chapter Five. An extensive bibliography should go some way towards correcting the paucity of bibliographical aids on twentieth-century Colombia.

This project, based on a study of television producers in Colombia, is an ethnographic exploration of the working conditions of cultural production within a highly contextualized environment such as public service television under state control, using Señal Colombia TV channel as case study. I examine how cultural production is affected by governmental structures and dynamics, whilst exploring the conditions and processes of public service television production, and how television producers experience these processes at an individual level. My primary question is to determine how the production of public service television under state control impacts producers’ practices and perceptions regarding the value and outcomes of their work. In this context, precariousness, autonomy, good work, power and public value have emerged as central areas of constant tension. I link issues regarding cultural work and public value in a media production analysis, obtaining direct empirical data that provides an in-depth description of the current public media production context under state control in Colombia. To explore these intersections, the project brings together interviews, focus groups, and participant observation. The findings exposed that the internal dynamics of both the nation and the organisation significantly affect the concept of public value, making it an ambivalent, uncertain and ill-defined notion. Where governance is state-driven, workers, regardless of their role, subscribe to dominant narratives and discourses that justify their work, and thus contribute to keeping themselves under prescribed creativity. In general, the present study provides a holistic account of cultural work study, focusing on what occurs to cultural work in various contexts of control, and the individual reactions to these contexts. The analysis of cultural work in this context, also broadens current knowledge on the concepts of network sociality and good work under clientelism, and in a non-free-market.