Guillermo Fuentes

El Significado Político de los Ministerios Sociales en Argentina, Chile y Uruguay

Beginning in the 1990s, and as a result of the failure of market-oriented social-economic reforms, questions regarding poverty were reconsidered from a political perspective. At the same time, state institutions charged with overseeing new social policies and coordinating public policy directed at the poor were established: Social Development Ministries. This article studies these ministries institutional insertion, the mechanisms for relating with other state actors and their political orientation. The main findings point, on the one hand, towards the consolidation of ministerial control of the social protection sector while, on the other hand, demanding a series of responsibilities associated with the coordination of the social sphere. It would appear that current institutional structures are unprepared for this task.

LA DIFÍCIL CONSTRUCCIÓN POLÍTICA DE LA FUNCIÓN DE COORDINACIÓN EN EL ÁREA PÚBLICA SOCIAL

This article examines the complexities within the task of coordination in the public social field, taking as a case in point the Uruguayan Ministry of Social Development. In order to do this, coordination instances convened by the government agency, are studied with the purpose of identifying somewhat integrated dynamics between territorial levels. Although the array of areas within regional reach seems indicative of a political thrust towards curbing the centralistic pattern of public intervention, it is possible to affirm that the retreat towards a micro level had been relatively messy. The latter, highlights the intricacies at work and the need to establish a clear political meaning to this type of public action.