The politics of police reform in Uruguay 2010-2020

Abstract

One important concern in public administration studies is to understand what factors trigger and explain reform processes. This article focuses on analyzing the mechanisms behind the application of police reform in Uruguay. This case presents two important aspects for theory and empirical analysis. First, it is a case with counterintuitive elements. An organization with strongly traditional operating practices and a hierarchical administrative culture, which nonetheless underwent a significant series of reforms to improve its performance. Second, the work attempts to understand “the politics of administrative reforms” from an analysis of the relationship between structural and agency factors that give rise to a certain political result. The methodological framework of process-tracing, and its adaptation in three levels of analysis of causal mechanisms, was used to achieve the research objectives.