Projects
> The democratic State in Latin America and the Caribbean
Responsible researcher: Dr. Oscar Oszlak. Assistant researcher: Valeria Serafinoff
General objective: to analyze conditions that favour or delay democratization in Latin America and the Caribbean and to propose strategies to allow the strengthening of cultural guidelines and institutions that define a society and a democratic state.
Specific objectives:
The project addresses this topic by systematically analyzing the relations of the national states with:
• market players
• decentralized governments
• civil society institutions
• supranational organizations
A suggestion is made to set up an electronic forum, prepare brief documents on each of the proposed relations and make publications through Nueva Sociedad (Fundación Friedrich Ebert).
Source of Funding: Fundación Friedrich Ebert
Project duration: August 2006-March 2007 (first stage)
> Political conduct of Chilean landowners during the land reform: 1958-1973.
Responsible researcher: Dr. Oscar Oszlak
General objective: to analyze the political conduct of the Chilean Sociedad Nacional de Agricultura (National Agriculture Society) during the land reform process which started in 1958 during president Alessandri’s administration and was continued by the Frei and Allende administrations until the latter was overthrown in 1973.
Specific objectives:
- To analyze political action strategies of landowners vis-à-vis the measures taken by the successive governments that reinforced their land expropriation policies, thus threatening ownership rights. Consequently, it is interesting to look into their alliances, internal conflicts, changes in their corporate organization, power used at each juncture with regard to the political behaviour of other players (for instance, the government, the Church, peasants, industrialists, Alianza para el Progreso).
Source of funding: Institute of International Education (Ford Foundation)
Project duration: June 2006- May 2007
> “Evaluation of Institutional Capacities for the
Environmental Protection of the Río de la Plata and its Seafront.
Analysis of Argentinean Cases”
Research director: Dr. Oscar Oszlak
General objective: To evaluate the existing management capacities
at Argentinean public institutions involved in the environmental
protection of the Río de la Plata and its seafront, in order
to establish its potential deficits and identify measures that could
contribute to increase such capacities.
Specific objectives:
- To study the national and bilateral government institutions involved
(analysis units) through legal and institutional research available.
- To analyze the institutional capacities by applying the “Institutional
Capacities Analysis System” methodology.
- To elaborate an Action Plan to address existing deficits through
the application of the abovementioned methodology.
Funding: FREPLATA – PNUD/FEF/RLA/99/G31 Project: “Environmental
Protection of the Río de la Plata and its seafront: prevention
and control of pollution and habitat preservation”.
Project duration: March 2005-September 2005.
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> “State Transformation and Governability within
the Context of Globalization: Comparative Analysis of Argentina,
Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay”.
Research director of the Argentinean case: Dr. Oscar Oszlak
General objective: To analyze the structure of the system of capacities
emerging from the transformation processes in Argentina, Uruguay,
Chile, and Brazil.
Specific objectives:
- To study the system of capacities in the areas of formulation,
implementation, and regulation of public policies, as well as the
consequences on democratization, transparency, and accountability
in that system.
- To present a brief depiction of the transformation in the state
matrix and the public sector in general during the 1990s, analyzing
the reform process in terms of its main stakeholders, drivers and
points of resistance.
These research objects do not refer to the state in general, but
to two smaller spheres within the system of public action: a) the
systems of state capacities for promoting the creation of added
value in the sectors considered strategic by the government –agricultural
and agro-industrial sectors– and b) telecommunication services.
Funding: Inter-American Development Bank and United Nations Development
Program. Regional non-Refundable Technical Cooperation Agreement
ATN/SF-8251-RG.
The Executing Unit of the research is Fundación para las
Ciencias Sociales, Montevideo, and the co-executing institutions
are Instituto de Ciencia Política de la Universidad de la
República and Universidad ORT, Montevideo, Uruguay.
Project duration: June 2004-December 2005.
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> “Public Management in the Federal Government
of the United States”
Research director: Dr. Oscar Oszlak
General objective: To analyze the extent to which the state apparatus
of the United States actually adopts the principles, methodologies,
and technologies which its academics and experts recommend to the
less developed world.
Specific objectives:
- To study the actual size of the American federal government and
the weight of private outsourcing in state management.
- To analyze government employment policies in that country, in
connection with recruiting, promotion, performance evaluation, payment,
and training.
- To determine the main public policy orientations of the federal
government.
- To study the impact management agreements have had in practice
on federal organs.
Funding: Self-financed by the Department.
Project duration: March 2004-December 2006.
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> “Regulation of Railway Networks under Concession in Argentina”
Researcher: Lic. Valeria Serafinoff
General objective: To study the characteristics of the regulation
of railway networks under concession in Argentina between 1989-2002.
Specific objectives:
- To examine the functions undertaken and delegated by the state
concerning railway networks.
- To study the relationship between the various stakeholders involved
in the regulation of railway networks under concession, taking into
account the impact of such interaction on the definition of regulations.
- To study the changes in the user population of railway networks
as a result of the three different monitoring stages: 1) 1989-1993:
from the enactment of the Economic Emergency and State Reform acts
(nos. 23.696 and 23.697) until the establishment of the Railway
Concessions Monitoring Organ (OCCV, in Spanish); 2) 1993-2001: from
the start of the OCCV operations simultaneously with the Monitoring
Organs of the Network of Access to Buenos Aires city, Rosario city
and Córdoba city, until the enactment of the Decree ordering
the reorganization of monitoring organs under the OCCOVI, in 2001;
3) 2001-2002: implementation of the monitoring system under the
OCCOVI, a period characterized by the collapse of Convertibility
and the general renegotiation of contracts with the privatized companies.
Funding: Research fellowship Type I, CONICET.
Project duration: April 2004-April 2006.
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