“¡White collar politics!”: The variety of electoral transgressions in the Colombian Caribbean in the early Twentieth century

Abstract

This article explains some tendencies in the electoral behaviours of the political leaders, activists and electors from the Caribbean region of Colombia in the beginnings of the 20^th century, since 1905 until 1930. It is about identifying, verifying, typifying the frequency and variety of practices which alter the electoral laws and demonstrate the lack of democratic culture, affecting in many ways the electoral processes. The scenery to be studied corresponds to some localities from the Caribbean region in the three first decades of the last century. Besides the secondary sources of information, basic primary sources were used in this research, such as the local press from that time period and the telegrams about political issues that were sent by the political actors from the region to the government office, and which are kept in the files national office (Archivo General De La Nacion).