Abstract
How does violence shape citizens’ preferences for conflict termination? The existing literature has argued that violence either begets sympathy for more violence or drives support for making peace. Focusing on the 2016 Colombian Peace Agreement, this article finds that victimhood dissociation strongly shapes these preferences. With victimhood dissociation, a discrepancy exists between objective and subjective victimization, and the effect of violence on peace attitudes depends on citizens’ subjective interpretations of their personal experiences of violence. Citizens who do not experience violence often see themselves as victims of the conflict and vice versa. Victimhood dissociation is linked to cultural stereotypes of victimhood as portrayed in elite narratives concerning the conflict. In Colombia, political leaders framed victimhood around rurality, business entrepreneurship, kidnapping, extortion, and disappearance. In 2016, this widespread narrative was instrumental for politicians opposing the peace agreement. Citizens who disassociated their personal experiences of violence from their self-understanding as victims were instrumental to the failure of the peace plebiscite.
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Notes
The plebiscite failed with 50.2% voting against it and 49.8% voting in favor. The electoral turnout was 37.43%.
“Antioqueño” is the name given to the people from Antioquia, the department of which Medellín is the capital.
María Elvira Samper y Mauricio Vargas para Revista Cambio, 2002. “Ni paras ni Guerrilla,” www.colombia.com/especiales/elecciones_2002/perfiles/uribe/entrevistas.asp
Presidential address Álvaro Uribe, April 22, 2008. “Firma del Decreto sobre Reparación a las Víctimas por Vía Administrativa”
Presidential address Álvaro Uribe, February 8, 2003. “DECLARACIÓN DEL PRESIDENTE ÁLVARO URIBE TRAS ATENTADO EN EL NOGAL”
Presidential address Álvaro Uribe, September 9, 2008. “60 Años Declaración DDHH”
Presidential address Álvaro Uribe, February 27, 2008. “Alocución del Presidente Álvaro Uribe, tras la liberación de los 4 ex congresistas”
Presidential address Álvaro Uribe, August 7, 2002. “RETOMEMOS EL LAZO UNIFICADOR DE LA LEY, LA AUTORIDAD DEMOCRÁTICA, LA LIBERTAD Y LA JUSTICIA SOCIAL”
Presidential address Álvaro Uribe, January 26, 2007. “INTERVENCIÓN ANTE LA CORTE INTERAMERICANA DE DERECHOS HUMANOS”
Álvaro Uribe, 2012. “Discurso del expresidente Álvaro Uribe en la Asamblea del Partido Social de Unidad Nacional,” source: www.elcolombiano.com/historico/alvaro_uribe_discurso_en_asamblea_del_partido_social_de_unidad_nacional-PGEC_213873
Gobierno de Colombia, 2011; “Ley de Victimas y Restitución de Tierras” source: www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co/descargas/ley_victimas/ley_victimas_completa_web.pdf
Presidential address Juan Manuel Santos, Bogotá, June 10, 2012. “Palabras del Presidente de la República, Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, en el acto de sanción de la Ley de Víctimas y de Restitución de Tierras”
Ibíd.
Presidential address, Juan Manuel Santos, Rome, September 15, 2016. “Palabras del Presidente Juan Manuel Santos ante la plenaria de la FAO”
Ibíd.
Ibíd.
First presidential address Álvaro Uribe. Bogotá, August 7, 2002 “Retomemos el lazo unificador de la ley, la autoridad democrática, la libertad y la justicia social”
See for example: Amnesty International, 16 February 2010, “The Human Rights Situation in Colombia: Amnesty International written statement to the thirteenth session of the UN Human Rights Council,” www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/36000/amr230052010en.pdf
Ibíd.
Alvaro Uribe Velez “Nosotros hemos salido a la calle a recordarle a los colombianos que Castro y Chávez llegaron al poder anunciando que respetarían las libertades, y las pisotearon y las oprimieron.” Medellín, 7 de agosto de 2015 (CD)
Alvaro Uribe “Nosotros hemos salido a la calle a recordarle a los colombianos que Castro y Chávez llegaron al poder anunciando que respetarían las libertades, y las pisotearon y las oprimieron.” Medellín, 7 de agosto de 2015 (CD)
Alvaro Uribe ““297 páginas en una sola pregunta y de afán.” Santa Marta, 26 de Agosto de 2016
Alvaro Uribe ““297 páginas en una sola pregunta y de afán.” Santa Marta, 26 de Agosto de 2016
Alocución presidente Juan Manuel Santos, agosto 24, 2016. www.noticiasrcn.com/nacional-dialogos-paz/santos-plebiscito-refrendar-los-acuerdos-paz-sera-el-2-octubre
Revista Semana,“El conflicto, un dolor de todos” www.semana.com/nacion/multimedia/gobierno-lanza-campana-sobre-la-importancia-de-la-paz/437739-3
Alison Lefkovitz for The Washington Post. July 24, 2018. “Jordan Peterson and the return of the men’s rights movement” www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/07/24/before-jordan-peterson-there-were-mens-rights-activists
Justice for men & boys. 2015. General Election Manifesto. icmi18.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/141228-v10-general-election-manifesto-rgb.pdf
Lara Whyte for OpenDemocracy. 25 July 2018. “‘Young men should be furious’: inside the world’s largest gathering of men’s rights activists” www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/young-men-should-be-furious-inside-worlds-largest-mens-rights-activism
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Acknowledgements
I want to express my deepest gratitude and respect to the women and men I interviewed. This article would have not been possible without their willingness to share their most personal experiences and memories with me. I am indebted to James Mahoney and Robert Braun for their extraordinary mentorship and for their meticulous reading of this article. I want to thank T&S editors and the two reviewers for their very useful comments. For valuable suggestions at different stages of this article, I extend thanks to Charles Camic, Clemente Forero-Pineda, Timothy Gill, Charles Kurzman, Emilio Lehoucq, Ana Arjona, and to participants of the 2018 Social Science History Association Annual Meeting, the 2018 Mini-Conference of the Comparative and Historical ASA Section, the 2018 Chicago Area Comparative Historical Conference, and Northwestern’s Culture Workshop and Latin Americanists writing group.
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This research was supported by the Comparative and Historical Social Science Cluster at Northwestern University and the Second-Year Paper Research Grant from the Department of Sociology Alumni Fund at Northwestern University.
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Acosta, L. Victimhood dissociation and conflict resolution: evidence from the Colombian peace plebiscite. Theor Soc 50, 679–714 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-020-09423-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-020-09423-z