Editorial
Abstract
Rubio Campos's text offers an analytical framework for studying cases of failures in the development or implementation of public policies, and for learning from these failures. In general, the literature on public policy is more abundant in its treatment of successful cases or in its critique of what are considered failures or shortcomings in policy design or execution, than in its investigation and debate of the causes that generate these deemed unsatisfactory results and in the possibility of learning from them—at least to avoid repeating them. Generally, both the failures and their recurrence are attributed to ideological biases. The article highlights both the conventionally technical aspects of policymaking and the adaptation of that design to a variety of factors that comprise the political-institutional, sociocultural, economic, and even geopolitical context that influences these designs and their effects. To this end, it proposes methods for analyzing the dimensions of public policy failures and their analytical models, the factors that stimulate or hinder learning in public policy at its various but interconnected stages, addressing recent Latin American cases. A variety of actors are involved in the design and implementation of public policies, in a chain of conflicts, coincidences, and agreements that are often presented as dialogues between the State and society, involving political preferences, the circulation of scientific knowledge, the generation of technologies, and experiences of applied knowledge.
The article by De Caro and Sánchez uses an innovation systems model to identify the relationship between actors and the flow of knowledge established in science and technology transfer processes for promoting sheep production. The information systems model allows for the identification of various types of policies geared toward this objective, as well as different levels and modalities of participation and collaboration among the various groups of actors involved in the sheep sector (knowledge and technology flows, financing, and shared use of equipment and human resources). Analyzing the system of relationships within the sector allows for a description of the connections between actors, facilitating the identification of problems and opportunities related to knowledge flow.
Pérez Lara, Covarrubias Moreno, and Tolentino Sanjuan address the complex problem of public insecurity in Mexico, an issue that manifests itself, albeit with different characteristics and varying levels of intensity, in a wide variety of societies across the hemisphere. The article approaches the topic as a complex system, characterized by nonlinear interactions among structural, institutional, and sociocultural factors. Based on a critical review of policies in recent federal governments, the study demonstrates the inadequacy of linear approaches and develops interdependent guidelines that articulate governance, multi-year funding, the use of artificial intelligence, restorative justice, and transparent information, all geared toward producing security as a public good.
The article by Dávalos Gonzalez and Bellotti examines knowledge management in public higher education institutions in San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro Province, from both theoretical and empirical, qualitative and quantitative perspectives, highlighting their main strengths and weaknesses. Among the strengths, the application and use of knowledge stand out: these institutions demonstrate an institutional commitment to faculty development, professional autonomy, and the adoption of evidence-based practices. Simultaneously, weaknesses were identified in the creation, transfer, and storage of knowledge. The limited production of new knowledge and the difficulties in preserving and sharing institutional experiences reflect a need to consolidate document management systems and promote an organizational culture that fosters the systematic circulation of knowledge. These findings align with the technical literature that describes similar obstacles in university contexts in developing countries, where the exploitation of existing knowledge predominates, along with weak coordination between its creation, storage, and application. Massive and steadily increasing poverty, with its specific manifestations, is integrated into the policy agendas of many Latin American governments, both actively and passively—either by addressing it with varying results or by shifting its treatment to the market. “Escaping poverty” is one of the major challenges facing the region's societies and governments, and their outcomes have been highly uneven. In Argentina, one of the approaches to tackling poverty, once recognized as a problem, has been, for decades, the generation of what is conventionally called “genuine employment,” as distinct from various forms of subsidies, cash transfers, emergency programs, and similar measures that generally neglect intervention strategies addressing the factors that contribute to or exacerbate the impoverishment of large segments of the population. Álvarez Newman discusses how some municipalities in the greater Buenos Aires area have managed labor market inclusion policies through socio-productive programs that, either as a result of their implementation or as an effect of it, have favored the generation of non-salaried employment.
For their part, Rada Schultze and Zopatti address the educational dimension of impoverishment and the difficulty of entering the labor market through the educational completion program for young people and adults in the City of Buenos Aires in recent years. Moving beyond conventional approaches, their work highlights the existence of a variety of factors in the organization of daily life in the city—from transportation networks to the characteristics of the residential areas of actual or potential participants in the completion program, etc.—that are formally unrelated to the specific issue of education for this sector of the city's population but that decisively influence the success or failure of the program due to its unsatisfactory alignment with the actual living conditions of its participants—a point that echoes Rubio Campos's text.
The variety of topics and approaches that comprise the content of this issue of the RPPP also underscores, once again, its contribution to the dialogue within the national, Latin American, and Caribbean academic community.
