Journal Studies of Public Policy

Editorial Special Issue

Nelson Cardozo — 2023-11-30

How does a collaborative network of public policies in Argentina learn?

Alejandro M. Estévez — 2023-11-30

This study aims to demonstrate how learning occurs in public policy networks. These networks select problems through prior diagnosis and approach their solutions diversely. Learning takes place through interaction with the political, social, and economic context, and is strengthened through experience. Information exchange is key among similar networks, but learning also occurs through competition and criticism. Continuous reflection and the role of the coordinator are important. Networks learn by facing challenges, prioritizing learning from failures. Obstacles include power conflicts, individual interests, lack of incentives, lack of achievements, lack of a clear identity, bureaucratization, deviation from objectives, and immobility. Networks that engage in reflection, utilize technology appropriately, and collaboratively address complex problems tend to be more successful.

Decolonial Reflections: Pension Reform in Argentina during the government of Mauricio Macri 2015-2019

Verónica Soto Pimentel — 2023-12-07

This article develops an alternative proposal to the traditional analysis of public policies, rooted in the Latin American critical thinking. To do this, from a decolonial perspective, I examine the neoliberal pension reforms of the government of Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), reflecting on how the modernity/coloniality logic and the coloniality of knowledge are reproduced in them: a form of knowledge construction that makes possible to legitimize these reforms even when their implementation is not beneficial for the elderly. To do this, through a qualitative methodology based on documentary analysis, I identify the a priori and universal principles of human action raised by neoliberalism theorists. These principles are found in the ideas of “truly genuine work” and “work culture” that support and are at the base of the pension reforms.

The role of the central agencies in the National Public Administration of Argentina

Horacio Cao — 2023-11-30

Over the last decades, there has been a substantial process of creating central agencies to address a significant challenge within the National Public Administration of Argentina: the growing complexity of its organizational structure. Although these agencies have been the subject of research by public administration specialists, the perspectives explored have often not given due consideration to their functions, as researchers have tended to focus on the individual characteristics of each agency. Due to the lack of comprehensive research on the role played by Argentine central agencies, this paper aims to analyze their role within the National Public Administration. To achieve this, we introduce these organizations according to the competences defined in the regulations and describe their formal scope of control. We then classify them based on the types of processes they oversee. Our goal is to contribute to this field of study from an organizational perspective, enabling a reevaluation of coordination capabilities within the Argentine state apparatus.

The management of the COVID-19 emergency in Argentina (2020-2021)

Luciano Enrique Andrenacci — 2023-11-30

This article presents hypotheses on how the National Government of Argentina dealt with the sanitary emergency produced by COVID-19, between the beginning of 2020 and the end of 2021, framing it is a public management case study. It shows how the case can be creatively tackled using an approach inspired on Michael Barzelay’s recent methodological suggestions (2019 and 2023). The reconstruction of the campaign shows Argentina followed an archetypal emergency response, with a sequence perplexity/skepticism, testing/learning, design/plan and adjustment/adaptation. The management of the emergency evolved in three stages, coinciding with the most significant waves of contagion, comparatively in the same way it did in most of the Western Hemisphere: damage control for the first wave (2020), accelerated vaccination in the second (2021) and gradual deactivation along 2022. The results of the exercise suggest the emergency was better managed -at least in the first phase- than what should have been expected from the context and circumstances. It also suggests the methodology can be useful to present hypotheses on why and how, as well as useful ideas for the comparative study of public interventions and organizations as “artifacts”.

The Political-Knowledge Regime in Action: Science and politics in the response to COVID-19 in Uruguay (2020-2021)

Adolfo Garcé García y Santos — 2023-11-30

The struggle between technocracy and democracy spans centuries and borders. However, in each country, this struggle takes a specific form that characterizes it, and has been defined as the Political Knowledge Regime (PKR). This article illustrates how the PKR is and how it works in Uruguay by analyzing the response of the government led by the President Luis Lacalle Pou to COVID 19 pandemic. In particular, it examines the relationship between the government and the Honorary Scientific Advisory Group that supported it between April 2020 and June 2021. The cycle of this advisory group (installation, convergence, divergence, dissolution) shows that in Uruguay, even in times of great uncertainty, government decisions and public policies are not delegated to experts. Uruguay's response to COVID 19 pandemic also invites us to deepen our understanding of how scientific knowledge should be used in democratic societies. Scientific knowledge is uncertain, incomplete, and more value-laden than its contributors would like. Science is essential, but it must be subject to rigorous citizen scrutiny.

Fontaine, G., Caviedes, C. M., & Narváez, I. (2019). The Politics of Public Accountability: Policy Design in Latin American Oil Exporting Countries. Springer Nature. 227 pp.

Iván Ruiz González — 2023-11-30

Cardozo, N. & Bulcourf, P. (2023). Policy Analysis in Argentina. Bristol University Press. 370 pp.

Ignacio Alfaro Rojas — 2023-11-30

Data and prison management: tools for rehabilitation?

Guillermo E Sanhueza — 2023-11-30

Although the Chilean prison system seems to be in better shape when compared to other countries in the region, it is precarious when compared to developed countries where rehabilitation is better managed. Although this precariousness is usually seen in terms of overcrowding, there are other, more invisible problems being one of them the data with which the institution works. Based on a review of the fields contained in one of the computer systems most used by the Chilean prison service (the so-called “Inmate System”), this article analyzes its variables, arguing that this data tool reflects and perpetuates a way of naming people. imprisoned solely on the basis of their deficits, and individually-determined “risks.” Likewise, the data contained in this registry system is extremely insufficient to design and monitor advances in the reintegration of incarcerated persons, according to international, specialized literature.