Critical Junctures or Slow-Moving Processes? The Effects of Political and Economic Transformations on the Mexican Public Sector.

This paper argues against prevailing explanations of public management change in Mexico that rely on analysis of “momentous” decisions and short term explanations of reform. In contrast, there is an explicit attempt to explain changes in the public sector by long-term developments in the political economy. Specifically, I will show how different processes of change have taken place in the Mexican public sector as a gradual adaptation to the processes of economic liberalization and democratization, punctuatted by specific reform efforts. The main hypothesis is that changes in the size and economic scope of the public sector are explained by changes in the government’s economic strategy, whereas the changes in structure and public management policy choices are better explained by the process of political democratization. The overall objetive of this research is to improve our understanding of the dynamics of institutional change in government structures, by emphasizing the distinction between deliberate reform and incremental change, and by linking both processes to broader developments in the political and economic spheres.Este texto ofrece una visión distinta de las explicaciones usuales del cambio en la gestión pública en México, las cuales se basan en el análisis de decisiones “trascendentales” y explicaciones de corto plazo. Contrario a ello, hay un esfuerzo explícito por explicar los cambios en el sector público en función de procesos de largo plazo en la economía política. En concreto, muestro cómo diferentes procesos de cambio han tenido lugar en el sector público mexicano en forma de adaptaciones graduales a los procesos de liberalización económica y de democratización, con episodios específicos de reforma. La hipótesis central es que los cambios en el tamaño y el alcance económico del sector público se explican por cambios en la estrategia económica del gobierno, en tanto que los cambios en la estructura y la selección de políticas de gestión pública se explican por el proceso de democratización política. El objetivo general de esta investigación es mejorar nuestra comprensión de la dinámica del cambio institucional en las estructuras gubernamentales, al enfatizar la distinción entre reformas deliberadas y cambio incremental, y al ligar ambos procesos a transformaciones de mayor alcance en las esferas política y económica

La acción social del gobierno local. Pobreza urbana, programas sociales y participación ciudadana

En reseña de:Guillen, Tonatiuh y Ziccardi, Alicia (coords.), La acción social del gobierno local. Pobreza urbana, programas sociales y participación ciudadana, México, PUEC-UNAM, COLEF, IGLOM, 2010, 463 págs

La educación social y la web 2.0: Nuevos espacios de innovación e interacción social en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior

La Educación Social en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES) requiere de nuevos procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje para ubicarse en el escenario del desarrollo de la sociedad del conocimiento y la información. Para ello, las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TICs), y especialmente las prácticas formativas de corte socio-constructivista e investigador que utilicen aplicaciones web 2.0, jugarán un papel muy significativo en la innovación y la mejora de la Educación Social. El presente trabajo realiza una aproximación conceptual al concepto de web 2.0 y analiza las implicaciones didácticas de la segunda generación web en el proceso de convergencia con Europa en materia de Educación Superior.Social Education at European Higher Education Area requires new teaching and learning processes to be located on the knowledge and information society scene. For that purpose, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) - especially social-constructivism and researcher formative practices using web 2.0 applications- will play a significant role in the innovation and improvement Social Education. This article analyzes didactic implications through a conceptual approximation about web 2.0 and the second generation in the convergence process with Europe in terms on Higher Education

¿Cuánto cuesta vigilar al gobierno federal?

The cost of making sure that government performance follows the principles of liberal democracy must include not only the costs associated with voting and political parties, but also the cost of those institutions that, in a slow but continuous process, have been built to compel the Mexican government to represent social demands, to respect basic human rights, and to prevent abuses of power. This paper presents a preliminary diagnosis of the budgetary cost of the institutions in charge of promoting governmental accountability in Mexico. The text provides a detailed analysis of the components and the evolution of these costs during the last years. In addition, we also provide evidence to assess the budgetary transparency of those institutions. Our central argument is that the Mexican State has invested significant amounts of public money in making sure that the government abides to the rule of law, respects human rights and liberties, and promotes good budgetary practices. Nevertheless, we also identify some sources of concern regarding budgetary transparency and the lack of effectiveness indicators. Moreover, we explain how public expenditure in this area continues to be subject to political pressures, which generate uncertainty and instability in these institutions

Observing and Measuring Government Openness. A conceptual discussion and application to Mexico

Open government has become a goal for countries all over the world, but it remains an elusive concept. Despite innovative methodologies to assess open government policies, action plans, and interventions in different countries, scholarly research and practical decisions are hindered by the lack of a precise concept and an operationalization. In this paper, we make two contributions to this discussion. First, we argue that the discussions about open government would benefit from taking the grammatical structure of the concept seriously (open is an adjective, government a noun). Second, we propose that, in order to be conceptually and practically useful, open government should be observable. We present the methodology, application and results of an effort to observe and measure open government in Mexico, based on a study of 908 government offices in terms of transparency and participation.En los últimos años el gobierno abierto se ha convertido en un objetivo para muchos países alrededor del mundo, sin embargo, continúa siendo un concepto elusivo. Si bien se han diseñado metodologías innovadoras para evaluar políticas, planes de acción e intervenciones de gobierno abierto en diferentes países, tanto la investigación académica como la toma de decisiones prácticas para promover un gobierno abierto se han visto afectadas por la falta de una definición clara, operacionalizable y observable de dicho concepto. En este artículo realizamos dos contribuciones. Primero, argumentamos que las discusiones sobre el gobierno abierto se beneficiarían de tomar seriamente la estructura gramatical del concepto (“abierto” es un adjetivo y “gobierno” es un sustantivo). Segundo, proponemos que, para ser útil conceptual y empíricamente, el gobierno abierto debe ser observable. Presentamos la metodología, las aplicaciones y los resultados de un esfuerzo por observar y medir el gobierno abierto en México, basados en un estudio de 908 oficinas gubernamentales en términos de transparencia y participació

Research on Public Management Policy Change in the Latin America Region: A Conceptual Framework and Methodological Guide

This article presents a conceptual framework and methodological guide for researching the process of public management policy change in the Latin America region. It provides an explicit the methodological approach for case study research on this topic. The focus on the Latin America region is due to the sponsorship of the Inter-American Development Bank, which desired an explicit methodological guide for conducting research on public sector management reform. While the article is specifically geared to this purpose, it also exhibits a distinctive general approach to a large class of case study research designs. This class includes instrumental case study research about processes, incorporating variants that are rich in narrative, explicit in their explanatory framework, and comparative. Publishing the article in IMPR is appropriate since a) this class of case study research has not benefited from specialized methodological exposition and b) much public management research fits within this class. Accordingly, the article is addressed to both public management researchers interested in the specific research topic and those engaged in instrumental case-oriented research on processes, more generally

On polynomials associated with an Uvarov modification of a quartic potential Freud-like weight

In this contribution we consider sequences of monic polynomials orthogonal with respect to the standard Freud-like inner product involving a quartic potential = integral(R) p(x)q(x)e(-x4+2tx2) dx + Mp(0)q(0). We analyze some properties of these polynomials, such as the ladder operators and the holonomic equation that they satisfy and, as an application, we give an electrostatic interpretation of their zero distribution in terms of a logarithmic potential interaction under the action of an external field. It is also shown that the coefficients of their three term recurrence relation satisfy a nonlinear difference string equation. Finally, an equation of motion for their zeros in terms of their dependence on t is given. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.The work of the second and third authors was partially supported by Dirección General de Investigación Científica y Técnica, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain, grant MTM2012-36732-C03-01

Usos del e‐learning en las Universidades Andaluzas: estado de la situación y análisis de buenas prácticas. (Resumen ejecutivo).

Secretaría General de Universidades, Investigación y Tecnología P07-SE-J.0267