Conditional Transfer Programs implemented by different governments in Latin America have given mothers a central role in reducing poverty and generating family well-being. These initiatives have had a positive impact in some countries where they have managed to ensure subsistence conditions for their users, without this implying a transformation in the relationships between men and women. From a gender perspective, I review two recurring and common problems in the elaboration of these programs: the first, regarding the dilemma of paid work / unpaid work and, the second, the issue of care. I conclude that the monetary transfer programs have reinforced the sexual division of labor in the user families, and have been weak in promoting the social empowerment of female household heads. Its limited link with the labor market has been decisive for the reproduction of gender relations.

In recent years, the concept of open government has spread strongly and has been installed on the world political agenda in a surprising way. However, it is an idea and a model in the construction phase whose ambiguity and lack of consensus definition can significantly harm the potentialities attributed to it, as a new paradigm that allows building capacities to adequately take on the challenges of the 21st century, on the base of putting into practice the principles of transparency and openness, participation and accountability in public affairs. The article discusses the origins and scope of the concept and proposes an operational definition. In addition, and taking the case of the recently created "Open Government Partnership" (OGP), a framework of reference is proposed to evaluate the action plans that the Latin American countries have committed joining this initiative. Under this perspective, the comparative analysis of action plans allows us to extract lessons learned that can contribute to strengthening and consolidating efforts to "open" governments in the region, from a vision linked to the concept of open and collaborative governance. Finally, we reflect on the possibility that under the label of open government a new agenda for state reform and modernization of public management will be promoted for the coming years in Latin America.

In the present study, which is part of the doctoral research, we seek, first of all, to approach the process of Latin American decentralization as a whole to observe its progress and its most visible difficulties, highlighting the importance of institutionality (both formal and informal) in the levels of success or failure of these reforms. Next, we take the Colombian case to carry out a two-way review: first, we look at the institutional design that frame this transfer of competencies, and then, through a case study, point out points of importance within the local contexts that mark the prevalence (and sometimes strengthening) of non-democratic mechanisms after the decentralization reforms. We conclude this work by emphasizing the need to review not only the formal issues involved in a new role of the local sphere, but also the informal issues traced by social conceptions around the public, the role of state agencies, and citizens themselves in the definition of objectives and in the implementation of mechanisms to achieve them jointly in pursuit of the common good.

In this working document we analyze the role of the State in the generation of well-being and how this affects competitiveness. A theoretical development is presented to emphasize the fact that the State is a differentiated social actor that possesses capacities and attributions that the rest of the social actors do not have and that is why its influence on the development process of societies is decisive.

Based on a reflection on the inevitable impact of the emerging paradigm of open government on the study of public policies and their designs (policy designs), and on a proposal for a descriptive definition of what could be understood as "open public policies", this work seeks to identify and explore the elements that must be taken into account when analyzing and transforming public policies under the optics and principles of open government. Oriented on the analysis of policies, this effort could give conceptual and methodological guidelines for the evaluation of policies and for analysis in a comparative key. Final exploratory reflections are oriented on the situations and scenarios of change and transit of normal systems and policies towards political-administrative systems and open public policies, emphasizing the potential environment (or ecosystem) that would arise as a result of these processes, and which tend to think towards a new field of analysis for the design and management of public policies; defined (given this first approach) as "open governance".

This article offers a descriptive model that allows to understand and order open government initiatives within the framework of the creation cycle of public policies. This model is called the "LUDO open government model". It is a way of understanding and classifying the institutional initiatives of transparency, participation and collaboration. We can say that behind the LUDO model lies the thesis that transparency, participation and collaboration need good design to achieve their objectives. One of the keys of this design is to understand the moment of the cycle of public policies in which it is being applied. Another key is to define well the degree of openness - the amount of power that is returned to citizenship. The LUDO model aims to provide clarity and design to open government initiatives, so that the "open" dimension can be systematically incorporated into public management and a clear contract between public authorities and citizens can be established. In the article we will advance step by step through the different variables that make up the LUDO model and we will offer a couple of practical examples of how to put it into practice.

How useful is the subjective welfare approach to the study, analysis and making of public policy? In this paper I argue that utility is appreciated in several aspects. The subjective wellbeing approach offers new ways of testing basic assumptions of economic and social analysis on human behavior; offers analysis tools that give a different and complementary perspective to traditional measurements and approaches on the aspects that matter most to the population in its development process; offers a set of important reflections on the implications of the study of happiness and satisfaction for different types of public policies and in different areas of government action. These aspects are analyzed from a historical tracing on the origins of the "science of subjective well-being or happiness" and a review of the literature to identify issues addressed, tools developed and public policies involved in the study of subjective well-being in recent decades. One of the central ideas of this work is that rather than raising the levels of happiness and satisfaction of people, in itself important, it is about finding ways to reduce the gap between the development objectives that public policy has, for one side, and the subjective well-being of the population, on the other, from a better understanding of the preferences and behaviors of individuals and what affects the satisfaction of people with their lives.

The fundamental purpose of the following lines is to show the status of the current issue of the armed conflict in Colombia based on the strengthening of the State in recent years thanks to the implementation of instruments that have become effective, such as the Democratic Security Policy of the Uribe Administration or Plan Colombia resulting from the Pastrana-Clinton agreement in 1999 and continued throughout the past decade. A similar situation exists in Mexico, where drug trafficking cartels have caused the weakening of State structures and, since 2006, there has been an exponential growth in violence and crime. The objective is to show how, at present, the Colombian conflict is in a position in which new advances and successes of the substance and scope of recent years seem difficult to repeat. The scenarios in dispute have a strong presence of the illegal armed groups so that, perhaps, it is time to opt for new strategies, such as cross-border cooperation, which may represent a new horizon of opportunities for new conquests by the State. .

The hypothesis that guides this work argues that the process of decentralization in Argentina has been the result of circumstantial agendas and has not in itself constituted a consensual State policy among the key actors of the political system nor is it part of a comprehensive development strategy. With this in mind, the work will be structured in four stages: first, some theoretical-conceptual aspects of the decentralization process will be considered; then, some of the political-institutional characteristics of Argentina that have influenced the development of decentralization in the country will be presented; the main antecedents of the process of administrative decentralization in Argentina are presented below, in particular, in terms of efficiency and equity, with special emphasis on public education and health services. Subsequently, the current characteristics of the decentralization processes of the Educational System and the Health System are described. Finally, some lessons learned will be systematized. Posteriormente, são descritas as características atuais dos processos de descentralização do Sistema Educacional e do Sistema de Saúde. Finalmente, algumas lições aprendidas serão sistematizadas.

The objective of this working document is to present the transformations produced in Argentine social policies during the period of the governments of Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007) and the current mandate of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (2007-2011). We will not enumerate policies, programs and measures in an exhaustive way, but the description and analysis will allow us to show the essence of an era that is resulting in important changes in Argentine social policy. In particular, we will analyze the changes produced in the retirement and pension system, as well as the universalization of family allowances through the Universal Child Allowance program, and we will show how these two broad-reaching initiatives point out significant breakpoints with the traditional operating patterns of the social policy system.