Political Structures of Colombian Institutions, an Obstacle for the Success of Public Policies: The Case of Internal Displacement Policy

In 1997, the Colombian State recognized the situation of Internal Displaced People IDP and its responsibility to protect the rights of the affected population through the Law 387/1997. The National government provided a general framework of public policies addressing the problem of displacement that failed to protect the rights of the displaced population, which became a reason for the Constitutional Court to prosecute the State for failing to perform the Law. Even though the Government reformed the Law, the actions have demonstrated not to be enough and the situation of IDPs has not changed in the last 10 years. The critiques towards the situation have focused on the poor capacity of Institutions and the failures of the decentralized mechanisms of implementation of the policy, leaving outside of the analysis the component of interests and social relations that support the Institutional structure in Colombia. This Research Paper attempts to study these facets of the problem in order to understand the unsuccessful outcomes of the public policy.