Encrucijada, an electronic journal of the Center for Studies in Public Administration

Institutional Evolution of Public Security in Mexico. A view from criminality

Adolfo Christian Castro Solis — 2025-02-17

Analyze the advances of federal public security in Mexico in the face of insecurity and organized crime processes during the governments of Ernesto Zedillo and Enrique Peña Nieto to understand the main constitutional reforms and the consolidation of police structures.

Performance auditing as a critical component for prospective analysis and risk mitigation in public policy

Bryan Jorge Rodríguez Villavicencio — 2025-02-17

The management of public resources is a matter of importance to society, as the goal is for governments to use public resources efficiently and with the greatest possible benefits. For this reason, governmental actions are constantly subject to review by various actors. This text will describe the nature of “performance audits” (auditorías al desempeño) their connection to public policies, and how they contribute to a preventive approach through prospective analysis, while still fulfilling their role as a tool for the oversight of public resources. Lastly, a brief case will be presented on the application of the prospective approach in a performance audit conducted by the “Auditoría Superior de la Federación”, public spending review body in Mexico.

Democratic Relevance of Transparency in the Current Public Service in Mexico.

José Adolfo Gómez Bouret — 2025-02-17

Transparency is a democratic criterion through which the right of access to information can be fulfilled, therefore, highlighting its relevance within the public service through elements such as the principle of publicity, the impartiality, the veracity of the information, open government , citizen participation and governance; being criteria that allow closeness between the governed and the rulers, using tools and means that keep the popular will firm in decision-making and the exercise of public power.

Exceptional practices in the Federal Public Administration Entry Professional Career Service Subsystem: A perspective and proposal for orthodox-liberal reform

José Manuel Santana Castellanos — 2025-02-17

This writing analyzes the exceptional practices in the Professional Career Service (SPC) entry Subsystem in the Federal Public Administration of Mexico. They are studied from an orthodox and liberal perspective that converge in the New Public Management, highlighting how the SPC Law, in particular its Article 34, allows temporary appointments without following regular procedures, which may contradict the principles of meritocracy and transparency of the civil service. The analysis underlines the need to reform these exceptions to ensure professionalization, impartiality and efficiency in public administration.

Intelligent Decisions. The Application of Artificial Intelligence in Governmental Decision Making

Francisco Benitez Vázquez — 2025-02-17

In recent years, the rise, relevance and dominance that artificial intelligence has acquired in various activities of our daily lives, begins to permeate within government institutions as a way to develop a better public management that allows the welfare of the population.

The Autonomous Constitutional Bodies in Mexico: Analysis of the configuration of the OCAs and their transformation with the reforms

Zianya Piña Medina — 2025-02-17

Autonomous Constitutional Bodies are entities inscribed in the Mexican Constitution, whose function is to establish counterweights to political power and guarantee independence in key sectors for democracy and human rights. In 2021, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador presented an initiative that sought to reform COFECE, IFT, CRE, INAI, CNH, CONEVAL, INE and MEJOREDU because he believes that eliminating them would allow a reallocation of those resources in other sectors, would eliminate duplicities in administrative tasks and could be more monitored in terms of maximizing their results.

Critical Review “Structural Corruption. The theory of double fraud and the roots of impunity in Mexico.”

Sofía Salgado Remigio — 2025-02-17

Critical Review, Salgado Remigio, Sofía, “Corrupción estructural. La teoría del doble fraude y las raíces de la impunidad en México”. AKAL Mexico. ISBN 978-607-8898-49-7, 239 pages, by author Irma Eréndira Sandoval Ballesteros.