Resumen

LLANO, Mercedes. The Political Determinants of Professionalization Processes in Latin America. A Model of Institutional Change. Foro int [online]. 2019, vol.59, n.2, pp.437-477. ISSN 0185-013X.  https://doi.org/10.24201/fi.v59i2.2614.

This paper develops a model of institutional change in order to analyze the determinants that operate on the level of institutionalization of meritocratic bureaucracies in two Latin American countries: Chile and Argentina. According to this model, the progress or degree of implementation of such meritocracies depends as much on the capacity for assertion and organization of civil society and state actors, as on the pre-eminence of a particular political and institutional framework. The empirical comparisons made by the model indicate that the intensity of presidential powers of patronage is the principal determinant of the degree of institutionalization of the meritocratic systems evaluated.

Palabras llave : bureaucracy; public office; administrative reforms; patronage; politics.