| Resumen: |
The first part of this paper reviews several explanatory paradigms on public policies in democracies that political science has developed in recent years, highlighting some frameworks and concepts that are particularly useful for analysing the emergence of compacts and consensuses.
The second part presents a model consisting of four elements that are relevant to the analysis: i) individual and collective actors that ratify and influence the decision-making process; ii) those actors" strategies and practices, with the understanding that these unfold in specific contexts where repeated interaction generates recurring patterns and forms of negotiation, confrontation and deliberation that play a central role; iii) inertial factors (both circumstantial and institutional) that contribute to, condition or even determine a final outcome, regardless of the intentions or initial objectives of the actors; and iv) ideas or conceptual frameworks specific to social policy as a sector of public policy in a given moment and context. These conceptual elements range from general ideas and values about the role of the State, social protection and the understanding of citizenship and democracy to very concrete technical instruments and management models for implementing actions and interventions of social policy. These ideas and frameworks shape the way reality is moulded by the actors, influence the preparation of strategies and discourse with reference to certain public policy models and help explain dissemination and imitation phenomena between and within countries.
Lastly, the third part concludes with some questions to guide the analysis. |
