The Colombian municipality is subject to tension that, by its political-administrative organization, generates two contrary tendencies: on one hand, centralism, and on the other the forces of administrative an political decentralization which has occured as a response to the unequal development of our society and the strong regionalism by which we have populated the national territory. This article examines , though a juridical and chronological synthesis of the unveiling of this tension, the limitations of actual democratic participation at the local levels and the real meaning of citizenship in Colombia. Likewise, this article puts forward the concept of city-municipality to explain the transformations that have generated the process of urbanization over the traditional territoriality of the Colombian municipality.