The professor at Eafit University in Medellín, Santiago Londoño Uribe, tells us in a column that we published this weekend called ‘I changed my mind about the State’ that: “Public debate, what remains of it, moves increasingly towards extremes without trying to understand the other, its history and its context; one speaks harshly and forcefully against the “others” to reaffirm positions, gain “likes” or add votes from “ours”. In this way he raises the discussion of how decisive the State is, after having been a councilor and secretary of the Antioquia government, among others.
“For a good part of my adult life I have dedicated myself to studying, understanding and working in the State. I have done it from the university, from the judicial branch, from the popularly elected corporations and, finally, from the executive. I was always interested in understanding and developing the faculties, competencies and powers of the public to intervene and transform society. Along the way I have obtained exciting achievements, hundreds of learnings, but I have also made mistakes and injustices and had disappointments. (…) I confirmed that the State is, under certain conditions, an effective vehicle to improve the situation of millions of citizens, for the administration of justice and to build conditions of security and coexistence. Notwithstanding the above, (…) I oversized the public entity and ignored or minimized the participation and responsibility of other sectors in the construction of societies and in the solution of their fundamental problems”.
“Today I think that the strength of a society does not reside solely or primarily in the State it has or in the clairvoyance and competence of its rulers, but in the ability to build proactive, respectful, collaborative and strategic relationships between public, private, and social sectors. and academic. The State can be a mobilizer, a detonator and a strategic ally, but it cannot be the only one or the main person responsible for the direction and momentum that a society takes. On the one hand, it is limited to think that a State can at any time and on any issue represent societies as plural, diverse and complex as the ones we live in.”.
However, says Londoño, one should not give up having good rulers. But “the power of a society and its possibility of advancing, and therein lies my change of opinion, it is not in any actor but in the fabric of relationships, communication, agreements and collaboration that is achieved between the range of actors that inhabit it. The State is not just one and is not homogeneous or stable or necessarily representative.”
“Today I dedicate myself to trying to understand how trust is built between different sectors of society; to put processes in motion to break stereotypes and paradigms and to achieve fabrics that cross us and connect us.”
Today he directs ‘Tejidos Territoriales’, an initiative of Eafit and Proantioquia that brings leaders, businessmen, and organizations to dialogue in neighborhoods and communes, “Knitting is joining threads that thus become resistant and clothe”. One step beyond what is called the Medellín model: the successful University – Business – State alliance.