No. 65 (2013): Central American Public Management: Modern Perspectives.

Societies in general have undergone important transformations during the last decades, changing not only people's way of life but also how their governments act, affecting the attention that should be paid from the governmental agenda to new demands and repeated problems such as: a) the consolidation of democracy; b) the strengthening of economic growth; and c) the reduction of social inequality.

These deficits in national development, which are also an expression of the performance of governments, have been the subject of governance as an approach that concerns society, national authorities and modern public administration and management. Thus, a minimum capacity for effective and efficient management by State administrations is associated with the notion of governability and governance, in which the public service becomes a strategic actor in the new modern perspective of public management that is taking shape.

Hence the importance of implementing excellent public management, which must take into account the particularities of the public sector, such as the complex nature of users and the regime of public employees, but also current aspects, such as a new definition of the public space and its respective alliances with new actors, relations with knowledge agents, innovation and continuous improvement in the administrative activity itself and the corresponding citizen participation, both in decision-making processes and public policies as well as in the management of the administration.

These conjugations of modern perspectives of public management and of increasing improvement of governance and governability of public institutions, constitute a continuous challenge of public administration and should be a priority for political and governmental managers, whose fundamental purpose is the promotion and guarantee of the principles and values of public service, which in turn, result in the strengthening and continuous development of democratic society.

Today, in this issue, the Central American Journal of Public Administration, ICAP Magazine, offers its readers some of these facets of Central American public management, a space that allows discussion regarding the daily work, to review it and improve institutional capacity, in order to generate proactive initiatives on transcendental aspects that contribute to the sustainable development of the Central American peoples.