Constitutional dictatorship: crisis government in the modern democracies, by Clinton L. Rossiter and William J. Quirk

I encourage those who are interested in colombian history and politics to make a critical reading of this book which, in my view, constitutes an important reference to understand the responsibilities of the government, police and military forces in events such as the assault on the Palace of Justice and many other events where the institutional bodies of modern democracy were in danger. It also helps to develop a suitable legal frame for such situations of emergency, if that is our choice, actually Rossiter is skeptical about legal abnormality and suggests responsibility should rest on the political realm. It provides an insight to understand the history of public order policies by going beyond the common place of government abuse. But this book, including its updated introduction (Transaction Edition) by William J. Quirk which accounts for the 9/11 events and the subsequent War on Terrorism, should be carefully adapted to the Colombian reality. While the modern conflict in Colombia is dominated by the economy of illegal drugs and therefore closer to the realm of criminal law, the classical conflict has a historical and political nature which asides the colonialist legacy of inequality, is also an expression of a delayed consolidation of the constitutional order. This is the so call "weak state" factor, and is not only expressed in the limited presence of public force in geographic territories, but on the weak constitutional control over governmental behavior. From the latter perspective the defense of an abnormal constitutional order is a conservative force delaying the consolidation of a liberal constitutional order.