Policy analysis, bureaucratic capacity and public administration reforms in Colombia

Resumen

This chapter critically assesses the capacity of bureaucratic actors and institutions in Colombia to engage in policy analysis and evaluates the extent to which bureaucratic reforms have contributed to increasing capacity. It undertakes a policy analysis of administrative policies in Colombia in terms of both the design and characteristics of public administration reforms and the conditions for their implementation, such as the bureaucratic capacity of public organizations. It also illustrates the design of administrative policies in Colombia that has been historically based on the global North's approaches to public administration. The chapter analyzes Weberian approaches that were influential in the 19th and 20th centuries and considers New Public Management (NPM) as the main current approach in Colombian public administration. It identifies the characteristics of administrative policies of Colombia in a timeline starting with the Constitution of 1991 and finishing in 2018.