Abstract

ARDILA MATEUS, Juan Pablo  and  PINO URIBE, Juan Federico. Strategic Negotiation and Subnational Candidature Construction in Colombian Gubernatorial Elections. Desafíos [online]. 2025, vol.37, n.2, a5.  Epub July 01, 2025. ISSN 0124-4035.  https://doi.org/10.12804/revistas.urosario.edu.co/desafios/a.14712.

The construction of gubernatorial candidacies does not follow fixed patterns, nor is it unilaterally determined by either aspirants or political parties-particularly in contexts like Colombia, where both actors possess distinct resources that shape candidacy outcomes. This article investigates how aspirant-party associations are structured through a negotiation process in which the interests and resources of each actor interact to produce different types of candidacy. Drawing on the existing literature, two primary dimensions-aspirant resources and party resources-are identified as central to understanding this process. These dimensions form the basis of a typology that integrates the strategic agency of both parties and aspirants in constructing subnational candidacies, offering four distinct types: mutualistic, parasitic, party-dominated, and emergent. Employing a qualitative methodology that includes exploratory case examples based on interviews conducted in Quindío and Cundinamarca, this study empirically grounds the proposed typology by analyzing the processes involved in candidacy selection in these contexts. Findings reveal that the alignment (or misalignment) of resources fosters varied associations, resulting in different candidacy types. This article introduces a conceptual framework for examining the processes of subnational candidacy construction for single-member offices, offering a tool for analyzing aspirant-party dynamics in similar electoral settings.

Keywords : candidacies; aspirant-party relations; subnational elections; gubernatorial races.

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