Capacidades estatales: la construcción de capacidad administrativa y los cambios en el régimen de empleo público

Abstract

This paper looks into the state capacities of the Argentine State viewed in the light of administrative and bureaucratic capacities developed by the Menem administration. The authors analyzed SINAPA or Sistema Nacional para la Profesionalización Administrativa (National System for Administrative Professionalization), the main policy for civil service in the 1990s. Going beyond technical characteristics, the paper focuses on actors and constrictions that have operated in the implementation of said policy. This can help explain why the policy did not accomplish everything it set out to do. The underlying hypothesis is that the absence of a professional bureaucracy is one of the most important causal factors for the poor performance shown by the Argentine State.