Abstract
This chapter explores some of the main reforms promoted during the Duque administration (2018–present). Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the Congress approved a reform to the general system of royalties, a ceiling on property tax rates (a subnational tax, see Chap. 4), and the legal regime for the organisation of regional authorities (associations of departments). The study of this administration shows a decrease of recentralising reforms when there is no economic boom but rather an economic crisis (in this case, because of the measures to face the coronavirus) in a predominantly recentralised institutional context (PRI) (inherited by Duque because of the recentralising reforms of 2001, 2007, and 2011). For instance, instead of transferring more prerogatives from subnational to national instances, the royalties reform of 2019 sought to increase the royalties allocated to the producing areas, as well as to simplify the bureaucratic procedures to manage these resources (created with the reform of 2011, see Chap. 8).
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Notes
- 1.
See: BBC News 2021.
- 2.
- 3.
See: Portafolio 2019.
- 4.
See: BBC News 2020.
- 5.
See The Guardian 2019.
- 6.
See Hooghe et al. 2016.
- 7.
On the low-quality veto power of the Colombian Congress see Landau and López-Murcia 2009.
- 8.
Ciro Ramírez, Member of the House of Representatives (2014–2018) and Senator (2018–), interview 25 March 2021.
- 9.
For example, the governor of Santander (Mauricio Aguilar) had his brother (Richard Aguilar) in the Senate (see Duque 2019a; La Silla Vacía 2021b). The governor of Bolívar (Vicente Blel) had his sister (Nadia Blel) in the Senate (see Mejía 2019). The governor of César (Luis Monsalve Gnecco) had his cousin (José Gnecco) and allies (Didier Lobo) in the Senate and (Jorge Salazar) in the House of Representatives (Mejía 2020a). Governor of Atlántico (Elsa Noguera) was from the same political group as the Senate President (Arturo Char) (El Tiempo 2019). Similarly, the governor of Chocó (Ariel Palacios) and the representative Nilton Córdoba (Duque 2019b), and the governor of Caldas (Luis Carlos Velásquez) and the representative Oscar Tulio Lizcano (La Patria 2019). And, to some extent, between the governor of Nariño (John Alexander Rojas) and the senator Berner Zambrano and the representatives Gilberto Betancour and Teresa Enríquez (La Silla Vacía 2021a); as well as between the governor of La Guajira (Nemesio Roys) and the representative Alfredo Deluque (Semana.com 2021); the governor of Córdoba (Orlando Benitez) and the senators Johnny Besaile and Fabio Amín and the representative Erasmo Zuleta (Mejía 2020b); and the governor of Cundinamarca (Nicolás García) and the representatives José Caicedo and Oscar Sánchez (Hernández Osorio 2019).
- 10.
See Contraloría General de la República. 2018. Available at: https://observatoriofiscal.contraloria.gov.co/PaginasReportes/Balance%20sistema%20general%20de%20regal%C3%ADas.aspx
- 11.
President Duque’s speech in the 2019 national congress of Fedemunicipios about the measures implemented by his administration to facilitate the use of royalties. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAgqyV2yyZ4
- 12.
María del Rosario Guerra. Minister of Communications (2006–2010) and Senator (2014–), interview 19 April 2021; Ciro Ramírez, Member of the House of Representatives (2014–2018) and Senator (2018–), interview 25 March 2021.
- 13.
María del Rosario Guerra. Minister of Communications (2006–2010) and Senator (2014–), interview 19 April 2021.
- 14.
Ciro Ramírez, Member of the House of Representatives (2014–2018) and Senator (2018–), interview 25 March 2021.
- 15.
Iván Marulanda. Member of the National Constituent Assembly (1991) and Senator (1986–1990) and (2018–), interview 25 June 2021.
- 16.
Ciro Ramírez, interview 25 March 2021.
- 17.
See: Noticias Uno (2021), “En audio y video Minjusticia desconoce autoridad local de alcalde de Cali y lo amenaza con sanción” (In audio and video Minjusticia [Minister of Justice] ignores the local authority of the mayor of Cali and threatens him with sanction). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_oJQxZ6WVo
- 18.
See Noticias Caracol (2021): https://noticias.caracoltv.com/politica/paro-nacional-presidente-ivan-duque-responde
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López-Murcia, J.D. (2022). An Economic Crisis in a Recentralised Context: The Duque Administration (2018–). In: Recentralisation in Colombia. Executive Politics and Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81674-2_9
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