Resumo

IACOVIELLO, Mercedes  e  LLANO, Mercedes. Trust over merit: the impact of presidential power concentration on public personnel management in Argentina. Temas debates (En línea) [online]. 2017, n.33, pp.91-105. ISSN 1853-984X.

This paper analyzes the impact of centralization process of presidential political power during the last decade (2003-2015) on human resources management policies within the National Public Administration. This period of systematic concentration of powers in the hands of the president was accompanied by a progressive expansion of nomination capacities in order to guarantee the political adherence of the bureaucracy to the official project. The flexibilization of designations was the main resource used by governments to ensure political leadership over bureaucracy. The presidents mainly resorted to two appointment strategies to spread their margin of discretion: (1) the extension of the structure of transitional hiring outside the career system; and (2) the colonization of hierarchical positions through exception. The increasing use of these flexible mechanisms contributed to limit the full institutionalization of a professional bureaucracy, negatively affecting both the size of the state apparatus and government performance.

Palavras-chave : Patronage; Civil service; Public bureaucracy; Politicization; Public administration.

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