State reform
Uruguay, like other governments, are facing "state reform"; from the paternalistic and centralized state to the guiding and decentralized state.
What will the paradigm that will guide the decisions of States and societies, in terms of social and economic policies, be in the face of the current world situation? With the good purpose of achieving this substantial change.
Obviously, the task is fraught with complexities, since it implies acting more as a fortune teller than as a historian, since it implies the urgent taking of responsibility in terms of knowing how to understand - and weigh with a minimum of error - the future of social policies and economic, since these are not, as in the past, based on theories that were relatively coherent and easy to identify, although not shared by societies.
Is Uruguay able to successfully carry out this scheme that seems to be emerging in Latin America ?; a political attitude that, as has been demonstrated in the United States and the European Union, has ceased to be inspired by Keynes's thesis that encouraged governments to incur budget deficits in order to stimulate demand in times of recession, as with Hayek's theories of lasser-faire; and that, according to Martín Aalborg (Stanford University), “the fact that an increasing number of political actors reject such economic ideas constitutes a change of perspective in terms of social and economic policies”.
Although the future is uncertain -in addition, in Uruguay, highly controversial- the reform of the State presents a varied political question that cannot be ignored, since it must be borne in mind that there are increasingly more pressures to evaluate the magnitude of social consequences that the reforms to adopt may have in the medium and longer term. Particular case: tax reform and, as a priority, normal and technological education.
And it is in this context that new terms such as “social exclusion”, “social disqualification”, “social cohesion” appear. Karl Polanyi in his work "The great transformation of our time", points out that each period of "transformation" creates new concepts, in that the actors create them to describe the changes that arise in social structures and realities. Really: you cannot change paradigms without simultaneously changing the terms that allow you to express your novelty.
The guiding State
Following Denis Sain –Martin, “the Social Investment State, (counselor) is an institutional and politically strong form underpinned in the future, due to being linked, among other notable points, to its relationship with the knowledge economy, the birth of which aims to to ease; In his central attention to the young generations, a central figure around which social policy is rebuilt; Finally, the concept of investment implies the hope of a profit, of a future profit, because investing is making choices, it is taking risks. ”
For decades, I consider that the geographical organization of socio-economic activities constitutes, whatever the operating system, a structure within which the national regions perform functions that respond to the global interests of the system. This situation has not happened in Uruguay. The common saying of the Montevidean: "I'm going outside", (from where? From Montevideo), indicates that in its spatial conception Uruguay concentrates on the city-port megalopolis.
In Uruguay, as in the rest of the countries of Latin America, the "remnant" of the unconsolidated welfare state model was unable to provide solutions to the growing demands of society for improvements in living conditions, which led to to create a void that began to be covered by an emerging civil society that, from the last two decades of the last century, began to play an important role.
In the previous analysis to specify the reorganization of the State, it should be considered that the spatial structure of the economy is constituted by a certain geographical distribution and a certain functional interrelation between natural resources and the population, through the social capital created in the national territory. In Uruguay, such reorganization remains secularly pending and still not seriously faced, without demagogy.
The country is characterized by the existence in its territory of great regional imbalances (the internal border is located on the Negro River) - in social and economic terms, - not to mention education - in the lack of opportunities for everything. order for the population in vast areas of the country and in the existence of wasted productive resources.
A true global reform of the State should take into account all those - and more indicators - that have long since provided evidence of such a reality, emphasized by the phenomenon of increasing concentration in the south of its territory; with its cumulative nature it has in historical terms, and for its trend that has been worsening in recent decades, as indicated by official censuses.
The foregoing shows the importance that the much proclaimed "reform of the Uruguayan State" has the approach and the instruments to tackle the national problem. The aim is to propose a spatial strategy that must not only be compatible with the global development strategy, but must also constitute one of its important components, in such a way that the rational use of regional resources supports the achievement of national objectives. and, simultaneously, enrich them permanently.
For a spatial development strategy
Given the political decision of "State reform", it is essential to constitute a social development strategy must be accompanied by spatial development, since this is the instrument that explains the role of decentralized economic and political leadership.
Researcher D.Norh defines institutions as the rules of the game that shape human interaction in a society (USA, 1990). It places a lot of emphasis on the variation of transaction costs from an expired system to a new one, so that it can influence increases in economic growth and therefore in the reduction of poverty levels.
North considers that the phenomenon of poverty is a relative concept because it exists insofar as wealth also exists, which leads him to consider that the real problem to be solved is that of the equitable distribution of resources that polarizes and confronts societies.. Civil society is defined as "the sphere of social interaction situated between the economy and the State, composed mainly of the intimate sphere (the family), the sphere of associations, social movements and forms of public communication". (Cohen and Arato, 1997)
I reiterate, briefly, that any process of modernization of a State does not mean weakening, since it must understand its traditional security functions, impart justice, defense, good foreign relations, and other responsibilities for the proper functioning of public institutions.
Therefore, a reform of the State in Uruguay must specify the definitive conditioning of the geopolitical space of the country, in which for two and a half centuries, the relations of domination exercised by the metropolitan region have predominated over the rest of the territory. The functionality of this must be based on the internal differences that exist in it and that allow to establish, based on them, performances and specialized productive vocations that will determine in the political, educational, technological and economic aspects, a functional structure according to the times they live, not only in the world but in the region.
