Journal Studies of Public Policy

Hurtado-Briceño, A. J. y Santos-Carrillo, F. (Eds.). (2023). Experiencias y aprendizajes para la reactivación de la integración latinoamericana: política institucional, migratoria y comercial. Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia

Cristian Edilberto Ortiz Bonilla — 2024-11-30

Spanish Port Policy and Management

Fernando González-Laxe — 2024-11-30

Spanish port policy has undergone significant transformations since the late 20th century, highlighting its shift toward economic competitiveness and the adoption of a landlord model. This model integrates public ownership of infrastructure with private service provision and increased public regulation. The article examines the heterogeneous economic outcomes of the Port Authorities, emphasizing that these are primarily influenced by geographical location, technical specialization, connectivity, and integration into global supply chains rather than the investments made. Additionally, the percentage of concessioned surface area impacts business performance and reinforces the leadership role of ports in their respective hinterlands. These dynamics underscore the influence of globalization and the critical role of public-private collaboration in the port sector.

Prior Consultation without Social Accountability

Jesús A. Zúñiga Delgado — 2024-11-30

Prior consultation is a social accountability tool enabling indigenous and rural communities to engage in decision-making on extractive projects and those with significant environmental impacts. Despite its broad legal recognition in Latin America, its implementation has faced considerable obstacles. This article defines a causal mechanism to explain the persistent deficits in social accountability within Colombia's mining sector, a pioneer in regulating the right to prior consultation. Using Bayesian process tracing, the study shows that, following the adoption of prior consultation, private interests influenced the public agenda, weakening social accountability through the implementation of an extractive mining development model, sectoral reforms favoring private investment, and the centralization of mining governance. The analysis reveals the inadequacy of formal institutionalization of participation mechanisms and underscores the critical role of policy design processes in the discursive, strategic, and operational consolidation of these institutional innovations.

Public Policies and the Bridge between Academia and Society

Rodrigo Martinez Rodríguez — 2024-11-30

This article examines the interaction between academia and society in the field of public policies, based on the university extension experience of the Department of Political Science at the University of the Republic. Through a documentary analysis of institutional agreements and contributions to public debate in the press between 2011 and 2022, a predominance of collaborations with government entities is identified. These collaborations show significant variations following the 2020 change in government, highlighting a reliance on the demand for expert knowledge and questioning the relationship between science and politics. Additionally, challenges are noted in expanding the discipline to include departmental and local actors. Contributions to public debate focus on relevant contextual events and are characterized by objective assessments. In conclusion, the article emphasizes the need to strengthen connections with local actors to take on a more active role in the public policy-making process.

Cooperation and Territorialization in the Production of Health Consortia in Bahia

Carlos Vasconcelos Rocha — 2024-11-30

The objective of this work is to discuss and evaluate the elements that have hampered or facilitated “horizontal cooperation” for the production of public policies in the area of health. Specifically, it aims to analyze the factors that enabled the dissemination of Interfederative Health Consortia in the state of Bahia. Taking institutionalization of federative cooperation as the stabilization of rules and processes, the question that will guide the work is to verify how, over time, the actors, their interests and their problem agendas have influenced inter-municipal cooperation in the production of health policy. Aspects that contribute to cooperation are pointed out. In addition, it seeks to explain the patterns of territorialization of consortia. In this aspect, the path dependence effect proved to have great explanatory power. The work involved bibliographic research, semi-structured interviews and the Geographic Information System (GIS).

Pursuing secondary vocational education programs in Chile, beyond social background

Miski Peralta Rojas — 2024-11-30

This article analyzes how social background, academic performance, and future expectations influence enrollment and graduation in secondary-level technical programs in Chile. For graduation, the fields of education in the study programs are also included as predictors. This panel research uses logistic regression models by tracking a cohort of students from eighth grade through three years after the end of secondary education. The findings confirm the literature in this area, showing that social background is a strong predictor of enrollment in technical programs within the Chilean context. Academic performance has a modest but significant influence on both enrollment and graduation in technical programs, while future expectations vary between students aiming for higher-level technical programs and those aspiring to enter university programs. The findings raise questions about the choices made by students from similar social backgrounds but with different grades, expectations, and training programs (specializations).

Work, Poverty and Lack of Protection

María Ignacia Costa — 2024-11-30

This article examines the living and protection conditions of the working-age population during the pandemic and post-pandemic periods, along with debates regarding the implementation of alternative income guarantee policies. It highlights that income deterioration and insufficiency affect not only the most vulnerable workers, such as the unemployed and informal workers, but also those with formal salaried jobs. Currently, having formal employment does not guarantee freedom from poverty. During the pandemic, state intervention through income guarantee measures played a critical role in mitigating poverty. However, these measures were not sustained in the post-pandemic period due to emerging fiscal constraints. The analysis relies on secondary data from the Ministerio de Trabajo, Empleo y Seguridad Social (MTEySS) and the Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos (INDEC), as well as a review of newspaper records reflecting debates on protection gaps and the demands voiced by various worker groups. The study underscores the urgency of addressing these issues to ensure decent living conditions for the working population.

Analysis of Disability Public Policy in Ecuador

Luis Wladimir Farinango Salazar — 2024-11-30

This article analyzes how the adoption of quality of life and participation objectives established a policy change in Ecuador during the 2010-2020 period. The methodological design is based on the analytical framework of public policy design, where the causal mechanism connects a trigger with a result. The methodological process is qualitative, grounded in process tracing. To verify the evidence, the NATO instruments of the State are applied: nodality, authority, treasure, and organization (Hood, 1987). The findings reveal that the adoption of quality of life and participation objectives led to the formulation of laws, codes, and statutes, which, through State mechanisms, were linked to an intersectoral coordination process. This enabled policy coordination across sectors, involving state and non-state actors as well as civil society, fostering policy change.

Intercultural Mediation in “La Tola”

Gabriela Rosero Delgado — 2024-11-30

The relevance of socio-historical analysis in Ecuador's cultural policies lies in the operationalization of concepts such as (inter)cultural rights, the "return of the state" in the face of neoliberal hegemony, and the vindication of the right to free time as the foundation of any artistic or cultural mediation. Based on the artistic practices and (inter)cultural mediations developed in a university extension project in the historic neighborhood of "La Tola" in Quito, this study presents methodological strategies and theoretical reflections on the tradition of cultural mediation in Latin America. Interdisciplinary research into inequalities and the social conflicts stemming from the socio-cultural legacy of neoliberalism and neocolonialism is crucial for conceiving cultural rights and policies at various levels of analysis: from public-state dimensions, both national and local, to community-level approaches, which are essential to addressing the global-transnational issue of the commons.

Editorial

Cristian Leyton — 2024-11-30