Conflicting Approaches to Peacebuilding? Explaining Political Attitudes towards Armed Conflict Issues in Colombia through Ideas and Interests

Abstract

What are the main elements underlying political attitudes towards armed conflict issues? And to what extent does their role vary in shaping the opinions held by those who live closer to the conflict than others? This article answers these questions hinging upon the notion that self-interest and ideas are key determinants of attitudes. It uses a theoretical framework to suggest that there is a consistent association between ideas and attitudes towards policy issues, and that the less directly linked self-interests are to a given issue, the stronger the ideas-attitudes association will be. It then uses quantitative data collected in the context of the 2012-2016 Colombian peace talks to explore the attitudes of individuals who live in the vicinity of the armed conflict as compared with those who do not. The results indicate that while Colombian attitudes towards peacebuilding approaches are generally associated with ideas, such as the perceived benefits of an eventual peace agreement, people living closer to the conflict tend to be less guided by ideology.

Keywords

• Political behaviour
• political attitudes
• war
• peace
• peacebuilding
• policy making
• Colombia (Thesaurus)