Decolonising Public Administration: Politicisation and Administrative Traditions from a Latin American Perspective

The politicisation of the public bureaucracy is frequently associated with the use of political criteria in recruitment processes, often to the detriment of meritocratic principles in the selection of government officials. Administrative traditions comprise the values, rules, and practices embedded in public administration, and they play a significant role in shaping patterns of bureaucratic politicisation. The existing literature identifies several administrative traditions—most commonly Nordic, Germanic, Napoleonic, Anglo-American, and Southern. While a growing body of comparative research examines these traditions, other regions, particularly Latin America and the Caribbean, remain largely overlooked. This paper seeks to address this gap by providing a comparative analysis of selected Latin American countries. Drawing on a literature review and a comparative case study of Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Haiti, the study examines similarities and differences in their civil service systems. Documentary and bibliographical research are used to analyse how civil services operate in each country. The research is guided by two central questions: Are the observed similarities sufficient to identify a distinct Latin American administrative tradition? and What are the main characteristics of the civil service systems in these countries? By adopting a Latin American perspective, this study aims to contribute to the decolonisation of knowledge in Public Administration and to advance the development of a more inclusive classification of administrative traditions.