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The following article introduces the concept of "dilution" to show that the emergence of narcotics-trafficking and the territorial advance of paramilitarism in Colombia did not imply a total collapse or complete replacement of the traditional oligarchies. Instead, the events followed three different paths: the first was found in the big cities, where the capital from drugs and the armed conflict did not affect the relative wealth of the traditional oligarchies. The second was found in the intermediate cities, where there was a strategic accommodation to the new circumstances, so that the power exercised by the traditional oligarchies was not supplanted. And the third, in the peripheral areas with a wealth of minerals (as in the territories of the owners of the emerald mines), where oligarchies did not exist before, so that, in the end, drugtraffickers and paramilitary leaders were able to turn themselves into oligarchs, thanks to their links to crime and the use of private violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criticizing the conventional political theory, this article demonstrates that the rise of multiparty electoral competition, rather than improving the quality of democracy, ended up worse because increase the risk of emergence of candidates linked with criminal agents of different type (drug traffickers, guerrillas, paramilitaries and parapoliticians). This shows how the low institutionalization of the party system at the regional level makes easier and less costly in political and judicial terms, the relationship between politicians and bandits. Finally, it revised a couple of theories suggesting the electoral success of criminalized candidates as a product of patronage, income, poverty and party affiliation. The results of a non-parametric statistical model indicated the predictive limits of such theories. However, the authors find out that “fiscal laziness" is significantly associated with the likelihood of electoral success of candidates who allied themselves with illegal agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]