Post-scriptum sobre desarrollo regional: Modelos reales y modelos mentales

Fifty years of public policies in benefit of territorial development in Latin America has produced a rich experience for academic analysis, but few practical results measurable in terms of economic and demographic hiperconcentration in the territory, reduction of territorial disparities in people levels of life or reduction of the institutionalized Latin American centralism, which expresses itself also through organizations established on the few “modernity focus” which exist in the territory. This paper, prepared by a tireless believer on the democratization potential involved on the territorial development, does not worn out on the mere revision of failures. Handling out a double - category analysis: the concept of real model and, on the other hand, the concept of mental model, the author studies the situation shown by real models of regional development in Latin America, on the bases of its basic components (regionalization, decentralization, and regional development). Being evident that failure, ambiguity and scarcity are the major characteristics that has accompanied those processes. More important than mere confirmation of those results, is author’s explanation effort regarding to the mental model, described as the “previous rational representation of the action”. In this paper it is sustained that structural factors have set impediments for the construction of mental models adequated to support successful territorial interventions. These factors in fact are related with methodological, epistemological, practical and ideological matters, which its significative lacks must be healed to turn into practice the justice potentiality of regional policies.