Decentralization and Co-participation in the Public Sector: A Historical Feature of Uruguayan Pluralist Democracy

Through a case study of administrative decentralization in Uruguay, this article illustrates how political considerations and historical paths influence the structure of the public sector. This article thus shows how beyond technical needs, public sector development is an answer to political power plays and thus the result of long-standing political structures. Tracing the political factors and historical trends influencing the development of administrative decentralization features in two types of bodies within the Uruguayan public sector, we argue that the shape of the twentieth century Uruguayan administrative machine is a product of elite-driven political projects and compromises. We focus on how these two types of decentralized institutions have developed pluralist features such as representative political co-participation, which historically acted as limits to the concentration of power in the executive branch, and corporatist co-participation, which led to public sector expansion through a “grey zone” of relations with the private sector.