The neo-Weberian state and the neodevelopmentalist strategies in Latin America: the case of Uruguay
| Author | Conrado Ramos,Alejandro Milanesi |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020852318763525 |
| Date | 01 June 2020 |
| Published date | 01 June 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
The neo-Weberian
state and the
neodevelopmentalist
strategies in Latin
America: the case
of Uruguay
Conrado Ramos and
Alejandro Milanesi
Universidad de la Rep
ublica, Uruguay
Abstract
This article seeks to contribute to the development of the neo-Weberian theory of
public administration by making it travel to the Latin American context. We argue that
this model of public administration reform, identified in continental European states,
tends to be present in some Latin American countries that have followed neodevelop-
mentalist models of economic development. The neo-Weberian political strategy
promotes a public sector modernization that enhances its steering and coordination
capacities which is functional to a neodevelopmental view that aims to rebuild
the state’s central role in leading economic growth and social cohesiveness.
Yet, the public management model that is implanted resembles an ‘imperfect’
neo-Weberianism due to the institutional deficiencies of these countries and the diffi-
culties in providing a clear reform script. We provide this link by decoding the main
outlines of the public management model in Uruguay in the context of the reforms
implemented by the Frente Amplio.
Points for practitioners
The article demonstrates two central points. First, that the processes of public sector
reform are usually linked to other broader development strategies and to calculations
Corresponding author:
Alejandro Milanesi, Universidad de la Rep
ublica, Department of Political Science, 1502 Constituyente St. 6th
floor Montevideo, 11200, Uruguay.
Email: alejandro.milanesi@cienciassociales.edu.uy
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
2020, Vol. 86(2) 261–277
!The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/0020852318763525
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of political feasibility. This can explain to some extent the options taken by politicians.
Second, public sector reforms are often a combination of multiple administrative doc-
trines. This poses the risk of being unsystematic, incoherent or even contradictory.
Keywords
Latin America, neo-Weberian, public administration, state, Uruguay
Introduction
The New Public Management (NPM) model of administration has received a great
deal of attention over recent decades, both from a supportive and from a critical
point of view. This has led to series of new studies that have given attention to
concepts such as performance management, post-NPM, public service motivation,
among others (Christensen and Laegreid, 2007; Curry, 2014; De Vries and Nemec,
2013). Latin America (LA) has been part of this debate. In the last decade, the
post-NPM agenda has been pushed by international organizations such as
the IADB, the World Bank and the OECD as a means to improve the outcomes
of public policies (Kaufman et al., 2015). This was, in part, a response to the
limited effects of NPM reforms in developing countries (Manning, 2001) and its
excessive emphasis on economic efficiency over policy effectiveness.
Simultaneously, the LA region has witnessed the arrival of a series of leftist
governments which brought a different state conception, called by some as neo-
developmentalist
1
(Boschi and Gaita
´n, 2009; Gaita
´n, 2014). Rather than an NPM
model, the neovelopmentalist state (NDS) has its public administration correlate in
the neo-Weberian state (NWS). This concept has received increasing attention
from scholars both from a theoretical and a practical approach. It has been defined
as one of the new trends of the post-NPM public management models (Lynn, 2008;
Mazur and Kopycinski, 2018; Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2011). From a practical
standpoint, it has been used to define the reform experiences of the Western
European states and some trends in south-east and post-communist Eastern
Europe countries (Dreschler, 2009; Randma-Liiv, 2008). Putting these two con-
cepts to work together seems a good way of discussing public administration and
development models.
It is our argument that since the Frente Amplio (FA) took office in 2005,
Uruguay has been following a model of public administration reform that fits
the European NWS model. This model does not stand on a managerialism and
pro-market discourse, or privatizing, but on one that strengthens the public sector.
Not only did the country structural features adjust administratively to NWS, but
also the political imaginary of a left-of-center party like the FA, sometimes char-
acterized as social-democrat (Lanzaro, 2008; Luna, 2007; Panizza, 2005), and for
others as neodevelopmentalist (Garce
´and Yaffe
´, 2014; Stoessel, 2014).
262 International Review of Administrative Sciences 86(2)
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