From the "good neighbor" to the "entrepreneurial intendant": the role of the Departmental Intendants in the reform of the State

Abstract

The visibility, transcendence and political influence of the intendants of the interior places them in the current national political scenario leading modernization processes; both in terms of government procedures and the functions and content of local policies. The novelty of its policies and styles of government coexists with strongly personalized political leadership and centralized in the figure of the Intendant. The article argues that these changes in the way of doing politics and in the functions of departmental executives are part of a state reform process, often silent and underlying, in which the "new role of the intendants" can be understood as a "form of reform".