The PDI's platform principally consisted of supporting a negotiated settlement with the country's leftwing insurgencies, defending the principles and practical applications of Colombia's 1991 Constitution, rejecting the country's traditionally bipartisan politics, and promoting democracy, freedom and social justice while also respecting human rights.

The party completely rejected the armed struggle of the FARC and ELN as an effective means to solve Colombia's social, political and economical problems.

Despite threats and violent actions from elements of the country's radical right-wing, most notably from AUC paramilitaries and others, which have resulted in the murder of some of its members, the PDI has become a nationally recognized movement and it has enjoyed some recent electoral successes, such as winning the October 2003 election for the office of Bogotá's mayor through their candidate Luis Eduardo Garzón, the governorship of the Valle del Cauca department through Angelino Garzón, and being partially responsible for the failure of the government's October 2003 referendum (which it opposed, together with the Colombian Liberal Party and others).

The PDI was in political opposition to the government of president Álvaro Uribe, being critical of many of his actions and generally rejecting his policies as counter-productive or ineffective.

The PDA chose AD's Carlos Gaviria Díaz as its presidential candidate, defeating the PDI's Antonio Navarro Wolff in a close race.