The local administration:lost link of social politics aimed to local development

Abstract

With some difficulties, the social policy in Argentina seems to be trying to modify the course consolidated in the last decade. In August 2003, the Ministerio de Desarrollo Social de la Nación launched the Plan Nacional de Desarrollo Local y Economía Social “Manos a la Obra”, whose implementation and the direction of the portfolio of programs towards development put the processes of management in the subnational spaces in the core of the scene. They are “policy networks” in which the actors’ interests have been shaped historically and have generated relation dynamics and different capacities of public action. From this first establishment, the plans work in the matrix of these networks. Just like it happened in the last decade, policies have in themselves the ability to shape the identity of the actors, to reinforce or to debilitate relations and to develop institutional capacities. From this paper we consider that a social policy that aims to local development and social economy must be set out simultaneously to take part not only in the problems but also in the relations among the actors who will be the material substrate of the management of the plans in the territory. Key words: policy networks; social politics; local development; new social actors.