Rethinking Participatory Peacebuilding in Colombia

The 2016 Colombian Peace Accord has attracted international praise but faces poor implementation progress and significant domestic dissatisfaction. Focusing on its bottom-up rural development programme (PDETs), this book examines how citizen participation shapes peace agreement implementation.

Combining extensive original data with principal-agent theory, it captures the dynamic nature of peace agreement implementation through an exploration of the perceptions, preferences and behaviours of citizens and state actors around inclusion in peacebuilding. Challenging conventional assumptions about the benefits of inclusion, the book argues that for citizens, developmental outcomes often matter more, in practice, than procedural participation.

The book's novel insights reveal the urgency of moving beyond general calls for (more) inclusion, demanding instead peacebuilding research and practice that meets the expectations and priorities of ordinary citizens on the ground.