APPROACH TO PUBLIC POLICIES IN THE FACE OF INSTITUTIONAL MONITORING FROM A TERRITORIAL APPROACH1

INTRODUCTION

In Public Policies there are authors who, like Canto (2015), point out that they respond to Jürgen Habermas’ model of deliberative democracy and the categorical imperative procedure (CI). Gómez (2012) defines from a social organization that is promoted in Europe by modernity and enlightenment, a public policy is a guideline used by the State and imposed on the people to deal with a specific matter of public interest (p.223). For his part, Loray (2017) concludes that the role of the State “has not ceased, which is distinguished in the implementation of policies, both general and sectoral” (p.69).

Institutional monitoring, for its part, consists of identifying the entities, estates, ministries or decentralized units in charge of carrying out public policies, and this implies joint work in terms of concurrence, subsidies and subsidiarity and even public-private PPP alliances. These alliances in Buesaquillo-Salazar & López-Buriticá (2019) are also state agencies to promote goods and services in a competitive and sectoral manner. In this way, institutional monitoring has as its main characteristic the entities destined to ensure that the population can fulfill its purposes as with the establishment of prior consultation. Monitoring in Colombia is elusive, due to the duplication of functions or the erratic position of bodies that do not comply with rigor when applying performance evaluation models and result indicators, added to the taking of positions and lines on issues that require permanent monitoring such as long-term policies, plans, programs or projects.

On the other hand, the territorial approach is based on the approach of the territory as a social construction (Lefebvre, 2013) of which it is part of the form of organization and production of imaginaries (Haesbaert, 2011; Lussault, 2007), social practices or system of practices (Santos, 2000) and power relations that are also material, that is, a system of objects (Santos, 2000) and historical that are made up of institutional, political, and sociocultural economic-productive practices. In this sense, the territorial approach is the result of the relationships between various actors that make the territory possible, in turn, of the need to unite the social-institutional, economic-productive, social-participatory and social-cultural dynamics to promote management processes associated with territorial development, that is, “the territorial approach offers a perspective focused on the study of the social relations that make up the territories” (Morales & Jiménez, 2018, p. 27).

Therefore, public policies as in Boussague et al. (2016) mobilize processes, activities and actors in the deployment of actions to face problems, which we are going to place in the territorial sphere. Therefore, monitoring is part of the institutional capacity , which is focused on the performance and functioning of the State organization and its Public Administration, and implies a structure and management based on competencies that, although they translate into effectiveness , efficiency and capacity to manage public resources, “focuses on the environment in which the entities operate” (Olivera et al., 2011, p. 4), that is, understanding the context such as the population, demands and national agendas, international, in turn, which focuses on the planning capacity of sectoral strategic plans, execution and budget operation. The territorial approach makes it possible to place public policy from institutional capacities (Hernández, 2015) as a perspective that adjusts its actions in the understanding and management of interactions between social, institutional, economic and political actors that are in tension and consensus in the face of how to deal with local phenomena.

In this sense, this writing is of a qualitative type, whose method is reflexive and was developed in two moments: in the first, conceptual discussions on public policy were carried out in terms of institutional capacities and the territorial approach. In the second moment, the discussion was held around the territorial approach to identify and strengthen the state agencies that put the State as a subject of interest and the policy with a territorial development approach and the call of the OECD.

DEVELOPING

Both public policies and institutional monitoring have their antecedents in the art of governing, which also translates into good governance, which seeks interest in the study of politics (policy) as a product of public activity (politics). In Roth (2014 and 2019) three types of policies are distinguished, the first refers to the sphere of government (polity), the second, as an activity and organization for the control of power (politics). The third as designation of a purpose by the government and the same companies (policy).

So, the territorial approach of public policies in the key to institutional monitoring starts from the understanding of the territory as a social construction of the territory, from the creation of networks, institutions that involve actors to articulate and conduct public affairs for the development of the territory. territory, from governance. The latter as a form of government, since it is based on the coordination of the actors to achieve consensus, actions and strategies in an articulated manner. Governance also refers to the action and effect of governing, however, here the object of reflection focuses on the transformation of the role of the State in relation to its activity, responsibility and action in achieving social, cultural, economic development. and institutional, that allows the interaction and relationship between the actors, public, social, economic and community.

In the territorial approach, it is pertinent to consider the scales, that is, the relationship between distances and spatial dimensions to analyze and study phenomena (Gibson et al., 2000, p. 218), so that such phenomena as the population and their forms of occupation, the ecosystem offer, the productive structures and practices and the demands for well-being in housing, mobility and urban services, are matters of local public management. To the extent that such management (Barzelay, 2001; Thompson, 2008; Chica & Salazar, 2016: Aguilar, 2009) implies a binding participation of citizens in public action, or as Chica & Salazar (2021) indicate, the Pos- new public management focuses on the capabilities and collaborative relationships of the State and civil society.

In this sense, the post-new public management as a political, institutional and social practice is an issue linked to governance, since the purpose of the State is possible as long as services and public policies are not a government issue, but the association, coordination and joint decision-making capacity between public, private, economic, social and community actors to achieve local development (Sosa et al, 2020). The governance study axis has implicitly the question of the government, through the articulation and cohesion of territorial actors to establish agreements and alliances to specify and fulfill public transformation and development agendas. In this sense, governance is related to the other axis of study on public policies, which, as indicated in Muller (2010), the school of public policy focuses its concern on the configuration and implementation of political decisions and , therefore, to analyze public (Cabrero, 2005), private, social-community political action through assumptions such as the plurality of powers and resources that are unequally distributed, and through decision-making processes results are sought; “This being the case, governance promotes a relational State model supported by citizenship as the axis of public policies “ (Chica-Vélez and Salazar-Ortiz, 2021, p. 27).

In this sense, governance is related to the other axis of study on public policies, which, as indicated in Muller (2010), the public policy school focuses its concern on the configuration and implementation of political decisions and, therefore, to analyze public, private, social-community action through assumptions such as the plurality of powers and resources that are unequally distributed, and through decision-making processes results are sought. In Aguilar (2000) it is elucidated that among the object of study of political science in which public policies are also inscribed is the occupation of the study of power (mechanisms of power and legitimacy) in governmental and social decision making, and in rational choice theory that these require. Also, the public administration contributes and is analyzed from public policy as the State in action. Roth (2002) indicates that the analysis of public policies is determined by the political problems that are taking place now, going from the difficulties of the welfare model in the 60s and 70s to the criticism in the decade of the 80s and to the neoliberal response in the 90s (pp. 14 and 15).

However, incomplete information, uncertainty, chaos and risks have generated problems in state management, the business and territorial perspective, social requirements and international observance, which are unable to stand out from the legislation (Bardach, 2001). Therefore, public policy has focused its interest on reducing these difficulties, making the constitutional order and the legislative sphere more solid and, incidentally, results at the local level (Fontaine, 2015; De Oliveira & Addor, 2018).

Public policies acquired a character in the sixties and seventies in the implementation of decisions and comparative analysis of state models. In the eighties in the configuration of government agendas, networks, communities and actors. In the nineties (with the neoliberal wave) in the efficiency and effectiveness of public management, administrative reforms, and all action, including policies, should be evaluated. Therefore, public management links public policies from three systems: political, administrative and social. In the latter, public policy is powerful because it is the State’s response to the problems, demands or needs of the population. The political system is in the realm of the political, in which decisions are made. The administrative system is the one who is going to execute it, to start it up. Lastly, the social subsystem is the one that receives the benefits or the damages of the action of the State (Aguilar, 2000).

To all these, the central reflection of this writing is focused on: first, that public policies from the territorial approach (Graph 1) are a matter of territorial development. Second, the territorial approach to public policies is a matter of institutional monitoring. For the first, it is necessary to address territorial development, which following Farinós (2009) we understand as a set of dimensions of the territory such as hierarchical power-institutional networks, social-cultural interactions and economic processes, which through the implementation of public actions articulate the organizational and management capacities installed in the territory, and thus seek to take advantage of their own potentialities: the socio-institutional, socio-economic, economic-productive and political-participatory systems. In this regard, emphasizes Guardamagna et al. (2020) that territorial development is a transformation process that aims to have a high degree of sustainable economic growth and innovation, growth in the levels of social and cultural capital, poverty reduction and inclusion and improvement in the quality of life (p.29).

Of course, territorial development is consistent with the territorial approach, in that both require public, institutional and social actions that address the problems, but also the processes that generate interactions between the actors in order to transform it and thereby enables the management of common affairs, that is, the territorial approach requires and has as its purpose the development of the territory. As graph 1 shows, the territorial approach as a perspective of social transformation, assumes a managerial dimension of the territory from an administrative, legal and citizen construction, through actions and techniques as planning instruments: Development Plans and Management Plans, and the same citizen participation.

Graph 1: Territorial approach.

Source: own elaboration (2020).

Regarding the territorial approach of public policies, it has a managerial dimension of the territory, it is a matter of institutional monitoring and, of course, the entry of state agencies in Colombia, Anglo-Saxon model, with Law 1444 of 2011 and Law 1962 of 2019 of Territorial Planning, in development of articles 306 and 307 of the Political Constitution that modifies the fifth numeral of the third article of Law 1454 of 2011, on the regionalization of the Colombian State when developing functions using the figure of the regions to plan , organize and execute its activities in the process of collective construction of the country, promoting equality and closing gaps between the territories. On the other hand, Decree 893 of 2017 and the country’s entry into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) through Law 1950 of 2019, focus the commitment to public policies in Colombia.

In fact, the obligation to consider the problem and the phenomena that are of a territorial nature is to address through public policies the transformation of realities that impede territorial development. Of course, the territorial approach considers education, employment, the environment, wealth and health, areas that are characterized by their breadth and, therefore, complicate the monitoring of public policies, for example, territorial phenomena such as the centralization of issues such as global warming, population demography, human genders, rights and natural resources, the sustainability of the planet, incurable diseases, opportunities and global justice, show off complex issues for which there is no a single observance or perspective. In this sense, climate change, refugees generated by global warming, displacement due to the armed conflict and illegal groups, the administration of international justice, among other complex issues, require public policy intervention.

Therefore, the territorial approach seeks to welcome the best of each of them, with the purpose of directing them to the complex fronts that are expected to mediate, mitigate, reduce or treat. Such issues are of the planetary orbit that emanate from organizations such as the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations Organization (UN), the Organization for Agriculture and Organization (FAO), that complexity implies recognizing oneself in the material globality of problems. On the other hand, in resilience, the conflict, the difficulty, the uncertainty, the problems and even the risks, can be diminished to the extent that they appropriate the necessary criteria to make this possible. In the territorial approach, it is relevant to consider resilience (Evans & Reíd, 2016) as the ability to seek a balance in the face of adversity, in the face of threat, and to regulate oneself and to assume the external as one’s own and manageable matter, that is, assume and manage the threat.

To this extent, institutional monitoring from the territorial approach implies technocratic knowledge that must pave the baseline in the space where it wants to settle. Different from the positivist vision that in general terms expects that the considered spaces incorporate the appropriate knowledge from other sources. It is a way not only to bring theory to specific topics, but to materialize them according to what they find in the approach to the topics, especially those related to planning and territorial ordering, especially with social transformations. and physical-spatial that all actions of the local government have.

Therefore, institutional monitoring requires the General Adjusted MGA Methodology as a base tool, which warns precisely of the coherence that any formulation must have, be it a policy, plan, program or project, in which there is none that can survive parallel to the front of the same or similar options. In other words, there can be no duplication of intentions or proposals focused on a specific topic. In this area, public policy, as well as its derivations, must also correspond to a special or unique fact so that it can be materialized, in turn, which must respond to the orientation of the international, national and regional order. Therefore, the dialogue between the formulation and the structure that must accompany them is an obligation that must be considered.

The Modified General Methodology (MGA) computer tool develops processes for the identification, preparation, evaluation and planning of investment projects in a modular and schematic manner. The tool consists of four (4) modules in which the investment project information must be stored according to the formula. To achieve this, it is important that all who complete it understand the basic concepts of design theory and its application at each stage through which it must pass: pre-investment, investment, and finally commissioning. The manual also explains the significance of the parts that make up an investment project. It is important to point out that this is an investment project presentation tool based on project theory, so it is necessary to know it before using it. It is essential to have all the information (topics, research, numbers, among others) necessary so that your format is filled out easily and efficiently (National Planning Department, 2013, pp. 4-5).

The MGA materializes to the extent that it is part of the Bank of National Investment Projects created for this purpose. The latter links the initiative proposed through the MGA, to interactively allow the project to be integrated into the proposals of the development plan, its strategic lines, objectives, goals or purposes, as well as the documentation or references contained to support the project. Therefore, the MGA, in addition to being focused on formalizing the structure of the projects through programming, supplies the information so that the typology of the project can be effectively identified in general terms, which allows, in addition to consultation, permanent review versus what it means to adjust or procedures to projects.

It is clear that the MGA also relies on everything that concerns the replicas focused on the structuring, formulation and evaluation of projects, as well as the monitoring of the entities in charge for that purpose that must attend to the projects, because, through of the basic investment statistics file (EBI), a survey is made of the nature of the project, the disbursements generated for it, impacts and results obtained by it, as well as the State or the conditions in which it is. Its adherence to programs or improvements in software ideally shows the correspondence that should prevail between the information systems and the application of projects, with which a complete review process is carried out.

The infinite generation of public policies is counterproductive, since they meet specific standards, such as completing a cycle, given that they cannot be constituted or become part of the permanent state spending accounts. Following this, it is considered that the validity of these depends on the interaction between the resources that support them, in terms of free destination income, which is why it is considered that the survival of a public policy depends on the nature of the income that supports it, whether from own income or free destination. The idea that both policies and plans are long-term is exposed, given the international agenda and state resources in which own resources prevail, while, in programs and projects, the scope is short.

Therefore, it is pertinent that the public policy to promote, in each of the stages in which clearly, link the population, the diagnoses they make, the problems they accuse, the possible objections or objectives as well as possible alternatives, to later expose the possible projects to be proposed and finally the matrix of the entire exercise. It should be reiterated that at each stage the certification or endorsement of the population’s participation is essential to validate this type of exercise.

It is a priority to classify the population or start with the entire demographic dimension, how they are classified according to age, gender, among other fronts or variables to consider, such as whether they are young, adult, elderly, among others, under the idea of identifying in macro what implies highlighting the population settled there. After that, and convened for the promotion of public policy, the diagnoses are exposed that, out loud or with participatory methodologies, should be highlighted to build these, and after a balance and election process, the most serious problems are established. transcendental, and incidentally choose the one that is closest to the reality that you want to reverse, which is now called the problem tree or central problem.

In the problem tree, the specific causes that generate the central problem are corroborated, sponsored by origins and data that give firmness to the different causes behind which the central problem is explained. Next, are the effects or consequences caused by said causes, which are based on evidence or indications and/or facts or circumstances. In this area, the idea is to fully understand the problem, if indeed it is the one that was identified, therefore, it should be analyzed, since it is not only an issue of public policy, of the State or the methodology, it is also expected that the population learns to identify problems in accordance with its pretensions or central objective.

The central objective is conceived as the problem to be reduced or the opportunity to be improved or the situation to be changed or modified by public policy. In this objective, it is essential to recognize the means or the bridges that are required to carry out said central objective and the ends or purposes that are achieved with said means. In it, the elements corresponding to the media run as work material, which are leveraged by tools or supports as well as by agents, subjects and institutions interested in materializing said media. Likewise, the impacts are found, considered qualitative conditions as the results in both a quantitative version, as a way of evaluating and measuring what is wanted as a central objective.

It is crucial to consider other alternatives, options or solutions to what has been built, which enables dialogue, recursion or schemes to be developed on behalf of the central objective. The scope, what is achievable and perhaps what is possible, are part of the disquisitions that can be presented at the moment of giving the space for dialogue in front of what has been built. This point is not exceptional, a participatory methodology would provide the space for it to be reviewed, as well, and not only as a support to deliver a public policy with qualities such as citizen participation and its relationship with results in accordance with territorial realities, without ignoring that every good methodology must expose its vulnerable side or the limitations that it has for its disposal, with which, consensus can be reached for the materialization of the projects.

The application of projects configures the intentions of the population to carry out their proposals, but also public policy. In this link, it is sought that the population be the generator of the projects, and that they effectively choose the most convenient for their consideration or application. Without exception, all the proposals are taken into account, but of course, the most appropriate or appropriate is chosen through the Bank of National Investment Projects (BPIN) as part of the institutional monitoring that considers in the development plans the correspondence between the proposals and the financial and institutional resources that exist for the combined effect in programs, plans or subprograms around what is proposed.

This is how, institutional monitoring from the territorial approach tries to determine the roadmap in terms of the capacity, elements and transforming factors of public policy. Under this criterion, a review is made of what can change public policy through the co-creation of the indices or the review of some already existing ones, but about which it is hoped that they will be superior to what has been achieved at the moment. In essence, the indices are more important despite the fact that they are supplied through the indicators, to the extent that the former are guides and the latter are data.

The evaluation is made on the basis of the data (results) or the figures obtained with each stage, basis or parameter of the policy as long as the indices proposed to solve or improve. In this field, the type of variable that is chosen is vital to strengthen, correct or test the same index, given that the variables can also be reconsidered, but not so much the indices. This last phase depends on the variables, be it organizational, institutional or information agency, and the way in which they manage to show that the information it provides is the most accurate or that it leads to reducing uncertainty, which is controlled.

The control is exposed to the categories, conditions, characteristics or points that are considered vital to supply the public policy with criteria or work foundations. In general, they are general conditions such as population, infrastructure, development (Martínez & Gil, 2017), growth or progress, which are considered against exogenous or independent variables. At this point, what control does is generate intervention processes via categories, trying to associate with the exogenous behavior of the units of analysis that are taken as such as those mentioned. Control corresponds to the very nature of the entities assigned to the process or by the same citizen intervention or oversight, among others, which make it possible to advance or avoid lags in public policy, which falls on monitoring.

Therefore, the institutional monitoring of public policies from the territorial approach is not only part of the functions of the entities in charge of the control, enforcement, surveillance and sanction bodies for what is incumbent on the policies and even of external instances that end up being bridges for the parties to move forward with public policy. It is also about making available to the participants (actors or subjects) mechanisms by means of which public policy can be reviewed, adjusted and fine-tuned or reoriented. From the institutional monitoring, not only the areas, entities or units directly in charge of strengthening the policy are deployed, but also those that, in concurrence or by complementarity, have to do so that it can improve or comply with the public policy cycle, to finally, give the latest references of its fulfillment and execution.

Conclusions

Public policy corresponds to a set of processes and to the positivist or rational disposition that places them within the framework of the relationship between benefits and costs, impacts or results and/or diagnoses and scenarios or plans and results (Taleb, 2013, p.34). It is important to remember that public policy has various classifications with the international agenda, global politics, development plans or programs among others, but although this is the coating, public policies must go through cycles, and for this they must go through the implementation and monitoring, which in turn allow reviewing the contribution of the entities that weigh it.

Therefore, monitoring makes it possible to monitor, evaluate and control public policies. In this area, the definition of indices, indicators, parameters and variables are part of the bulk of criteria with which to adjust, intervene or reorient public policies, if applicable. It is about the possibility of having dashboards with which to fully comply with each of the monitoring areas. The latter serves as a guide to overcome the chaos, complexity, uncertainty and risks of public policies through the observance of continuous and discontinuous variables.

In Fontaine (2015) public policies are not going through their best moment either, due to the bulky accumulation of theory that has prevented them from being palpated and the difficulties in advancing in terms of their implementation and follow-up as well as monitoring. They still have problems to become consistent with what is sought with them, which essentially lies in being able to close the gaps that arise between the political and legal interactions that emanate within the components of the State-Nation relationship. Therefore, the author claims that less theory and more action regarding what should be sought on behalf of State Public Policies.

In this way, public policies, compared to institutional monitoring, from the territorial approach have as a dimension the management of the territory that is in the Management capacity (Oszlak, 2006; Management Sciences for Development Colombia, 2012; Varela, 2015). On the other hand, it is not about recognizing advantages in the elaboration, formulation and evaluation of policies and, therefore, the scope, fruits or culmination of this in time, since every proposal must have a cycle. As a recommendation, it is pertinent that the public policy suggests the reasons why it should continue or escalate to other fronts, even overlapping other public policies, that is, the territorial approach in public policy makes its implementation and monitoring at different scales possible, to finally , present some suggestions or outputs and/or balance of everything achieved by it, and if this implies adhering to a line strategy, national program or subsuming under other initiatives.

Therefore, public policies from the territorial approach become the experiential scenario in which the three public powers (López, 2018) vivify their functions to the extent of the correspondence and reciprocity generated by the interaction of the three. It is evident that these are already part of the repertoire in the framework of the sentences issued by the legal system (Feoli, 2016) or the Constitutional Court itself, to the extent that the force of the law is no longer measured in strict compliance with the law. Literacy of the norm, but in the ability to make transcendental changes with them, through improvements in investment, provision of services or, as far as possible, demand the maximum from officials in the exercise of duty.

Finally, any action of the State against Society is considered Public Policy, and as such must involve institutional monitoring, as a mechanism through which the social contract set forth in the Political Constitution is validated (Olivares, 2015), to the extent in that it translates into the purposes that the State has in terms of the purposes and functions as they are known. Among the purposes such as education, justice, protection through the public force, health, among others, based on meritorious or pure public goods, as well as in the case of functions among which the allocation of resources, distribution of wealth, stabilization of the economy and promotion of territorial development.