Trade associations, bureaucracies, and productive credit in Colombia, 1958-1974

Abstract

This paper analyzes the relation between economic elites and the Colombian State regarding development credit policy. Specifically, it delves into the period between 1958 and 1974 and studies some forms of state capture during this developmental stage, as well as the ways in which elites defined or influenced the orientation of credit policy. The case study shows that the Central Bank experienced capture in the first stage and went on to acquire greater autonomy with respect to these elites. It is argued that this depended on two central factors: on the one hand, the level of dependence of the bureaucracies on the economic elites; and, on the other hand, the relational process of the State with the social groups involved in this policy. Based on the methodology of network analysis framed in a comparative historical approach associated with the high bureaucracies in the Banco de la República and the interactions of the trade associations (as organized representatives of the economic elites) with the State, it is shown how the relationship between elites and the State impacted the specific policy of development credit.