Resumen

PENA OCANDO, Dionnys  y  PRIMERA MENDOZA, Nelly Josefina. Moving Toward Local Development through Information Policies: Case of the Municipality of Maracaibo. Revista de Ciencias Sociales [online]. 2007, vol.13, n.3, pp.410-422. ISSN 1315-9518.

The statements expressed in public policies are basic for impelling or blocking the development of a determined locality. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze local development characteristics in the information policies (IP) formulated by the Mayor’s Office of Maracaibo and its para-municipal organizations between 1999-2003. To achieve the aforementioned objective, a documentary investigation was developed that allowed for the extraction of indicators or theoretical characteristics of local development and proved the presence of such characteristics in the municipal reality studied by applying a semi-structured questionnaire to the directors responsible for managing policies in the municipality and by analyzing management documents. Results identified informality and little systematization in the IPs, autonomy in their generation, intentionality, movement toward public management modernization, priority for the areas of organization, promotion and automating of information, as well as a traditional role of attention to intra-institutional needs with only a slight presence of characteristics such as consideration for the communities’ interests, increase in innovative capacity, generation of community services, among others. Conclusions were that the Municipality of Maracaibo is traveling a road toward its integral development filled with obstacles, due to the absence of significant development characteristics in the IPs formulated and executed by the competent municipal entities

Palabras clave : Local development; information policies; municipality of Maracaibo; municipal government.