A Sociology of the Chilean Public Administration: The Court Clerks and the Criminal Procedure Reform

In the old Chilean criminal justice (written) system, to reach the condition of civil servant, court clerks had to be introduced by an employee or a referent, and to work for free at first, without any training in law. In the adversarial/oral system implemented between 2000 and 2005, only academic degrees and public procedure of appointments ensure a position in the Poder Judicial. Focused on the social and school careers of former clerks, on the effects of this reform on their concrete work and professional identity, this presentation will emphasize: the way the “old” organization challenges Lipsky’s definition of “street level bureaucracy”; the interaction between administrative agents and their environment. I give special attention to the informal part of the state administration of Justice and the way such practices are surviving in the “new” judicial system: exchange of favors as well as patronage relationships within the administration.