Distrust of the State and observance of the law among peasants in the San Nicolas Valley

Abstract

In Colombia, political decisions related to the countryside preserve an unjust social order, maintaining inequities and obstacles to the well-being and life quality of farmers. In this scenario the Territorial Arrangement Planning of the San Nicolas Valley, in the East of the department of Antioquia, has generated a series of rural conflicts that accentuate the vulnerabilities of rural residents, threatening the agricultural tradition in this subregion. Thus, this study inquired about the perceptions of legality in the peasant population of the area. A descriptive-correlational study with non-probabilistic sampling was carried out, including 380 peasants, members of civic-rural associations of the San Nicolas Valley, evaluating in four scales: beliefs, values, knowledge of the law and perceived legality in the context. Statistical analyses were performed in SPSS v.22 software. The findings indicated significant relationships between the study variables. Despite the state abandonment of the proletariat to market forces in an area with socioeconomic imbalances, no determining link was found between low income and violation of the law.