19 - Emergence and development of public policies training tracks in Argentine universities

Summary

Introduction

The present chapter describes the thorough investigation carried out into the process of the emergence and development of the study of public policies in higher education institutions (graduate and postgraduate) in Argentina. The reconstruction of this process allows us to track the theories that have influenced it, as well as the dialogues with the particular context that have encouraged its unfolding, gaining importance, and making its way through the agendas, syllabuses, and academic offers of social studies.

The first part of this chapter consists of a historical overview of the milestones in the process of construction and institutionalization of the study of public policies in universities. The second part describes and analyses the current offer of graduate and postgraduate courses, based on the curricula and university programs.

Notes on the process of institutionalization of the studies of public policies in Argentine universities

The higher studies in public policies in Argentina have been developed in the field of political science and public administration and/or government.

The structuring of these fields identifies political aspects and situations and/or contexts by which both its institutional drift and its own contents and problematizing are conditioned (VVAA, 2017). The process of construction and legitimization of public policy as an academic discipline has taken place historically in Argentina in the dynamic space produced by the confluence of the particular relational dynamics the state has with the institutionalized ambit of the production of socially relevant knowledge (Fernández, 2002; Neiburg and Plotkin 2004; Leiras et al, 2015; Bulcourf et al, 2017).

The consolidation of the national management of the state, which dates back to the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, propelled the creation and development from a positivist matrix of state universities in different parts of the country. During the first decades of the 20th century, political affairs started gaining space in universities at the same time that there was a growing need for the consolidation of the state and the formation of a stable and professional bureaucracy. The group of liberal reformists from the bicentenary propelled the study of political topics, but from a formalist perspective, focusing especially on the public and public law (Bulcourf, 2012).