State and Public Action: public policies and development, regional integration and international participation

Coordination : Prof. Carlos Quenan.

This research area builds on works previously undertaken by the pole ”Regional integration in the Americas“ and takes into account a watershed moment in Latin America recent history: the return of the State on the political scene with a strengthened role for its actors in the economic and social processes. A phenomenon considered as a necessity to improve the quality of public policies and break away from the extremes of neo-liberalism.

This revamped role of the State translates into an increased interest for public policies design and effectiveness, and goes hand in hand with a redefinition of public agendas to implement development policies centred on both social issues (e.g. fight against poverty, social policies, affirmative action) and economic issues (e.g. infrastructures investments, energy security, global and regional integration).

A first research sphere focuses on public policies and development. The increased weight of State – that has been mounting since the 2000 - has been accompanied by a renewal in the analysis of the relation between the political system and public policies (IADB, 2006). In this context, works on a new generation of public policies – and on the modernisation of administrations – have spurred a lively debate centred on the enlargement and implementation of governmental agenda in various countries of the region. This agenda includes not only issues directly pertaining to socio-economic issues of Latin-American countries, but also the crucial development challenges of the region. This is particularly the case for transportation and road infrastructures, education-related problems or social tensions arising from the rapid urbanisation featuring many countries (Surel, 2001). The resulting public agenda is thus filled with issues related to the region’s relative level of development that are influenced by both exogenous pressure (international organisations) and the emerging logic of civil society actors (middle class, ethnic groups).

This research sphere will be fed by and linked to the recently established GAPPA, research group on public policies in the Americas, of the GIS (French for Group of Scientific Interest) “Institut des Amériques”, which will bring additional value to our research, thanks to a multidisciplinary and trans-American approach. At the same time, this will assist an important number of our PhD candidates working on these issues (public policies on education, water …) . The GAPPA has launched a cycle of monthly seminars, while a scientific committee has been created by Jean-Michel Blanquer, Carlos Quenan and Yves Surel.

The second research sphere regards public action on regional integration and international participation, whose relevance has become apparent since the early 2000, insofar as many countries of the region have witnessed the emergence of the idea of a “State-Strategist”, scarcely present or utterly absent before then.

Without neglecting the study of integration historical root causes and institutional mechanisms, our research intends to pay increasing attention to new trends in integration - particularly regional integration - as well as international participation that involve different countries and groups of countries against the backdrop of current globalisation and “decentralisation” phenomena (strengthening of South-South interrelations).

The 2000 have ushered in new regional integration dynamics, directed more towards non-trade issues: infrastructures, energy cooperation, education and health systems, political cooperation. In this context, regional integration finds a closer relation with the renewal of the public action (a less “trade driven” vision, Government strategies for regional and international participation, public policies “territorialisation”…), in line with a new vague of regionalism. Hence the shift from an “open regionalism” (prevailing in the 1990) to the “post-liberal regionalism” characterising the 2000 (Quenan, 2006; Da Motta Veiga and Rios, 2007; Sanahuja, 2007). At the same time, a rich variety of regional integration modes can be observed. Based on collective strategies, or initiated by public- and private actors, regionalism – now complex and multifaceted – develops in a non-uniform fashion (Santander, 2012).

This research area will thus focus on regional integration processes that we define “concrete”, as our interest is in analysing the nature, scope and actors of the region chief infrastructure investments and public works (e.g. building railway systems, energy grids and networks, harbours, etc.). This research will facilitate a better understanding of integration processes in the Americas and the territorial reconstruction related thereto. This will in turn allow an assessment of the impact of such territory transformations at different scales: valuation of new spaces, rehabilitation of old ones. Most specifically, this research will focus on impact evaluations of corridors, major continental reorganisations, by privileging a comparative approach between North and Latin America, and a trans-American methodology.

The focus on regional integration and strategies for international participation will add an extra-American and supra-national dimension to CREDA’s research, that is also needed to better follow the evolving relations and exchanges between Latin America and the Middle East;  Asia and the Americas; Latin America and Africa (without forgetting traditional relations, e.g. Europe/Latin America). This will eventually foster common views on inter-regional relations.

References :

Inter-American Development Bank, The Politics of Policies, Economic and Social Progress in Latin America, 2006 Report, Washington D.C., 2006.
Yves Surel, «Les problématiques de l’action publique», in Carlos Quenan et Sebastien Velut, Les enjeux du développement en Amérique latine. Dynamiques socioéconomiques et politiques publiques, AFD/IdA, Paris, 2011.
Carlos Quenan, « Régionalisme en Amérique latine : concurrence et convergence de projets », Questions internationales n° 14, La Documentation Française, Paris, mars-avril 2006.
Pedro da Motta Veiga; Sandra P. Ríos, « O regionalismo pós-liberal, na América do Sul: origens, iniciativas e dilemas », Série Comercio Internacional n° 82, CEPAL, Santiago du Chili, juillet 2007.
José Antonio Sanahuja, « Regionalismo e integración en América Latina: balance y perspectivas », Pensamiento Iberoamericano, n° 0, Madrid, 2007.
Sebastian Santander, Relations internationales et régionalisme. Entre dynamiques internes et projections mondiales, Presses Universitaires de Liège, Liège, 2012.