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Implementing Meritocracy in Senior Public Administration: the Dilemma for Chilean Politicians

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An Erratum to this article was published on 09 September 2016

Abstract

This article addresses the question of whether politicians are willing to overcome patronage by creating a merit-based recruitment and selection system of the senior civil servants with the purpose of making public administration more effective. To answer the question the paper analyses the Chilean administrative reform of 2003. It concludes that the reform created a hybrid system of appointment of top civil servants: one with elements of meritocracy but restricted to the members of the political coalition in power. Information came from 67 interviews to key actors, official documents, academic literature and the press.

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Notes

  1. The handover from Bachelet (2006 to 2010) to Piñera (2010 to 2014) involved the change of government from a centre-left coalition (Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia) to a centre-right coalition (Alianza por Chile). The handover from Piñera to Bachelet (2014 to 2018) involved the change of the Alianza por Chile coalition to a new coalition, which includes the ex-Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia parties, in addition to the Communist Party and others minor Marxist parties, meaning the ruling coalition is now further to the left of the political spectrum than the ex-Concertación.

  2. These cases were coined colloquially by the press as the “Bribes” (Coimas), “MOP-GATE”, “MOP-CIADE”, “MOP-IDECON” and “Over-Salary” (“Sobresueldos, a kind of informal bonus) Cases. For further information, see: Navia 2004 and Olavarría et al. 2011.

  3. In the case of first rank positions, the applications process was open during August 2013, while for second rank positions the process was open during October 2013. These months were chosen because they are the last ones for which data of each stage of the appointment process is available.

  4. For further details on the presidential instruction see: Presidencia de la República 2009; Presidencia de la República 2010; Presidencia de la República 2013 Presidencia de la República 2014.

  5. This phrase was originally used by Antonio Cortés Terzi (2000), who had taken it from the title of a book by Simone de Beauvoir. Cortés coined the phrase in reference to whether the government of President Lagos would be the last of the Concertación, or if, given the character of the President, he would implement a “historic project … which would ensure the Concertación remained the leading force in the country”.

  6. To date, Pablo Longueira has occupied the roles of Deputy for a constituency on the outskirts of Santiago and Senator for one of the two senatorial constituencies in Santiago in the 2005 elections, although he was unsuccessful in his bid to be selected as Presidential candidate for the party in the 2009 Presidential election. Under the government of President Piñera, he resigned his position as Senator to take up the post of Minister of the Economy. He won the primaries for the Alianza por Chile in the 2013 Presidential candidate elections, but soon after resigned from politics after being diagnosed with clinical depression.

  7. As of 30 June 2015, there had been 101 first seniority rank positions and 206 s rank positions non-appointed to the ADP system (Servicio Civil 2015).

  8. The amounts mentioned are equivalent to US$24,600 for the first seniority level position processes and US$14,100 for second level position processes.

  9. Riggs (1997: 35) define “retainers” as “partisan appointees in a bureaucracy who retain their positions indefinitely.”

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Acknowledgments

This article is a result of the FONDECYT 1120546 Project. The authors would like to thank the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT) for its financial support in compiling this study.

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  1. Avda. Bernardo O’Higgins 3363, Estación Central, Santiago, Chile

    Mauricio Olavarría-Gambi & Andrés Dockendorff

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  1. Mauricio Olavarría-Gambi
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Correspondence to Mauricio Olavarría-Gambi.

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An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11115-016-0362-2.

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Olavarría-Gambi, M., Dockendorff, A. Implementing Meritocracy in Senior Public Administration: the Dilemma for Chilean Politicians. Public Organiz Rev 16, 561–582 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-016-0360-4

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