Abstract
This article describes an approach developed to assess the institutional capacity of whole governments. It discusses the evolving context in Latin America and the Caribbean for public sector reforms and the impact of structural adjustment and globalization on international agency policies on the issue. It reviews national and sectoral organizational networks, the profile of a modern public administration, and the definition of public management horizontal and vertical systems; explains how integration of horizontal management system reforms is attained at the ministry level, and addresses the issue of performance management and use of an elite managerial and technical corps. Finally, it describes techniques used to plan changes in strategies.
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Ernesto F. Betancourt is Vice-President of International Development and Finance (IDF), in charge of institutional development and public sector reform. He has worked in most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean as a consultant for more than thirty years, and is the author of many essays, articles and reports on Cuban and Latin American politics and public administration. He is also the author ofRevolutionary Strategy: A Handbook for Practitioners, a textbook on the analysis of revolutionary propensity, © 1991 by Transaction Publishers.
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Betancourt, E.F. A new approach to developing institutional structure. St Comp Int Dev 32, 3–28 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02687322
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02687322