Central-Regional negotiation in Chile: reality or myth - The case of the Los Lagos region

• Autor(a) principal: Reyes, Pablo Aurelio Monje
• Data de Publicação: 2007
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: spa
• Título da fonte: Revista de Administração Pública
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/article/view/6601
• topic: regional government; central government; decentralization; Los Lagos; Chile.; gobierno regional; gobierno central; descentralización; Los Lagos; Chile.

Since the 1990s, political-administrative decentralization has gradually intensified in Chile. It has expressed itself through the creation of regional governments and the central government’s political will to delegate to these instances the management of funds for regional application, among other aspects. Even though the reconfiguration of the current regional division has not been considered a priority within this decentralization policy, this issue has not been completely overlooked. Extra-officially, as well as on the regional and central governments’ level, the need for aplan that redesigns the country’s political-administrative division has been recognized. This case study focuses on these demands for restructuring, especially on the demand for the regionalization of the Valdivia province, in the 10th region of Los Lagos, Chile, during 1995/96. The study adopted the central-regional negotiation perspective, so as to describe the process’ components as well as the factors determining the actions of those involved. The results are tied to the role of the actors in the centralregional conflict and negotiation. It was possible to establish their characterization and to identify a political clientelistic relationship between the regional and national elites as a determining factor in the negotiation’s outcome. It was also proven that the institutional design of the political system induces this kind of tie between those elites. Finally, the study proposes several measures to strengthen Chile’s decentralization policy, in order to lessen the cultural effects of the country’s institutional design, within both regional and national elites.