STATE CAPTURE AND INEQUALITY: ANALYSIS OF ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN FINANCING IN COLOMBIA FROM 2018 TO 2022

Abstract

This article analyzes the role of political campaign financing in the capture of the Colombian state from 2018 to 2023, as well as its relationship with material inequality. Theoretically, the research is based on Corporate State Capture approaches and elite theories that explain the concentration of economic power and inequality. Using a mixed method approach combining a review of government documents, clear accounts application, data published by the Electoral Observation Mission, press reports, and research carried out in other regional countries, the article establishes that economic elites obtained immediate benefits, such as millionaire contracts and other advantages for their companies, through political campaign financing. This preserved their advantages in the social hierarchy and reproduced structural inequalities.