Government reform, known in Latin America as State Reform, is one of the main topics on the world's political agenda. Government reform, however, is not new. Most notable is the fact that the process of reform from the late seventies to the early nineties was motivated by a crisis of confidence in the post-war acceptance of an active government involved in providing services. The first and most common response by developed countries to this crisis was to de-emphasize government solutions and allow the market to have greater predominance.Thus, privatization was promoted under the assumption that the private sector could do a better job than the public sector at delivering services at a lower cost. This notion was also embraced in Latin America, with many large countries such as Mexico and Chile and some of the smaller countries such as the Dominican Republic privatizing many of their government enterprises. However, as has since been recognized in the United States, Latin American countries have increasingly realized that the financial and technocratic nature of this reform failed to take into consideration the major issues in the region, which include the need to consolidate democracy, the necessity of resuming economic growth, and the urgency for reducing social inequalities.Likewise, the UN meeting of experts on public administration and finance concluded that the problems confronting developing countries and countries in transition serve to demonstrate the dangers of quick fixes, reductionist approaches, and over-reliance on narrowly technocratic solutions. Noting these failures, calls have been made for the rebuilding of State capacity through public administration reform as an essential condition for improving governance and enhancing democratic governance. To be successful, however, reform efforts must recognize and address the economic and political realities of the country in question.This paper presents the preliminary results of a study that grapples with such factors in the context of state reform in the Dominican Republic. This has been a country that albeit impressive economic growth has continue to see an increase in income inequality and continues to spend less on basic social services as compared to other countries in the region. Data for analysis were gathered by means of in-depth interviews with government officials that are or have been involved in the process and from printed material on the process of reform in that country.Preliminary analysis indicate that although the country exhibits the same patterns of reform present in reforms efforts of other Latin American countries, there are factors specific to the Dominican Republic that may inhibit the reform process. Those factors can be broadly categorized as the inefficient structure of government, a culture characterized by a history of authoritarianism and the monopoly of participation exercised by the political parties. Therefore, simply importing or designing solutions that do not take into consideration the country's context will not work.In addition, there have been successes in the arduous process of government reform. Of particular importance is that government reform has become part of the national dialogue. Dominicans are beginning to question existing public management practices and are demanding a more democratic and transparent government that delivers high quality services for all people.

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