Limits of Power: Elections Under the Conservative Hegemony in Colombia, 1886-1930

O N February 9, 1930, a Liberal, Enrique Olaya Herrera, defeated at the polls a divided Conservative Party in Colombia, bringing down a regime that had been in power since 1886, the so-called Hegemonia Conservadora, or Conservative Hegemony.' Olaya Herrera's victory was an extraordinary event in itself. The transfer of power from Conservative to Liberal rule that followed was all the more remarkable considering that after 1930, several Latin American governments in quick succession were forcibly overthrown amid the political turmoil and social discontent of the worldwide depression.2 It was not the first time in Colombia an opposition party had come to