Oligarchic rule or elite constellations? Conceptualising and researching power and the state in Colombia

This article explores the challenges of conceptualising and researching power and the State in Latin America and potentially beyond, with a particular focus on Colombia. It makes the case for using ‘elite constellations’ (Savage and Nichols 2018), through an iterative research process, i.e. moving back and forth between theory and data, including constructing a database of Colombian elites as well as qualitative research. Oligarchic elites, whose capital rests on wealth, are the most powerful of constellations. However, to understand how they maintain, protect, adapt and expand their interests, it is important to explore the relationships between them and other elite constellations which draw on varied capitals and in Bourdieu’s terms, dictate and at times dispute the dominant principles of domination in a society. The idea of elite constellations challenges assumptions of homogeneity in rule by the few and/or rule by wealth while recognising ‘unity in the dispersion of power’.