Peru

## **General information about the policy process**

Peru (officially Republic of Peru) is a unitary presidential representative democracy with a multiparty system. The country is divided into 26 administrative units which include 25 regions and the Lima Province where the capital is situated. The main legislative document is the Constitution of 1993. The document sets out the basis for the current liberal democratic system in the country.

The country’s government is divided in three powers:

* **Executive:** is formed by the President and the Council of Ministers (18 Ministers and the President of the Council).
* **Legislative:** Peru has a unicameral Congress made up of 130 congressmen elected based on population.
* **Judiciary:** is composed of 1,838 district courts, 195 trial courts and 28 superior courts. The highest judicial court is the Supreme Court.

Article 107 of the Constitution determines that both the President and the Congressmen have the power to initiate legislation. The ordinary legislative procedure has four phases: i) Legislative initiative, ii) Study in commissions, iii) Debate in plenary and iv) Approval and promulgation.

The implementation is led by the responsible ministry(ies) and their ancillary institutions. A National Control System was established in order to monitor the activities of public institutions. The reach of the Control Organs include the activities and actions in the administrative, budgetary, operational and financial fields of the public institutions and they reach the personnel who provide service in them. The Control Organs part of the National System are destined to conduct and develop the exercise of government control in a decentralized manner.

## **Main actors**

### **National actors involved**

* **President of the Republic****:** Article 118 determines that the President must comply and enforce the Constitution and treaties, laws and other legal provisions. Moreover, the President has the duties to direct the general policy of the Government and to exercise the power to regulate the laws without transgressing or denaturing them; and, within such limits, issue decrees and resolutions.
* **Council of Ministers****:** Article 125 of the Constitution determines that the Council has the duties to approve laws that the President submits to Congress and approve legislative decrees and also urgent decrees that the President of the Republic dictates, as well as laws, decrees, and resolutions arranged by law.
* **Congress****:** The powers of Congress in terms of policy-making are reflected in Article 102 of the Constitution. Based on this, Congress has the power to pass laws and legislative resolutions, as well as to interpret, amend, or repeal existing laws. In addition, Congress must ensure the respect for the Constitution and the laws; and to do whatever is necessary to hold violators responsible.
* **Constitutional Tribunal****:** is an autonomous and independent institution which is tasked with upholding the principle of constitutional supremacy.
* **Control Entities****:** The entities part of the National Control System which include: the General Comptroller of the Republic, and Internal Control Organs in each public institution and the external audit societies.

### **Regional or local actors involved**

* **Regional Government:** these bodies organize, conduct, and manage, each one of the twenty-five regions of Peru. Regional governments have political, economic, and administrative autonomy in matters within their competence. The regional government is led by a Governor who works together with the Regional Council. Their competences are laid out in Article 191 of the Constitution. Some of these competences include proposing and executing the budget, promulgating regional decrees and resolutions, as well as executing regional plans and programs.
* **Regional ministries:** these are the decentralized bodies of the national ministries, their names vary according to region and ministry (e.g. Regional Offices, Regional Directorates, Decentralized Offices). They are in charge of executing the budget assigned to their jurisdiction.
* **Municipalities:** these institutions oversee the government of the provinces and districts. Article 194 of the Constitutions grants them political, economic and administrative autonomy in matters within their competence. The local governments are led by the mayor and the Municipal Council. There are 1,828 municipalities in Peru, 194 provincial and 1,634 district municipalities.
* **Control Entities:** these entities are also present in the regional and local institutions.

## **The relationship between actors**

Decentralization is a relatively recent process in the country. The Constitution was amended in 2002 to indicate the decentralized nature of the State. Since that date, regional elections have been held every four years. As a result of this process, regional and local authorities have more involvement in implementation of national legislation and can promulgate as well relevant regional and local decrees within the scope of the Constitution. However, despite various calls for further decentralization, the national government still holds the stronger power in terms of policy-making, execution of policy, enforcement and monitoring.

The perception of centralism is still very present in the country and this affects the way all actors work with each other and how they act in terms of accountability towards the Peruvian population. Despite that regional and local authorities are directly in charge of execution, enforcement and monitoring in their jurisdictions, this still strong centralism can be used as a scapegoat for the deficiencies in their mandates The general population, similarly, tends to turn most of their discomfort towards the president, ministers and congressmen. This shows the poor level of awareness of the Peruvian people in terms of the competences of each level of government.

A clear example of this situation took place during the development of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country where mainly the national government was held accountable for the poor investment in health and education infrastructure which made the country ill prepared for a health crisis of such magnitude. Very little was shared in the media about the important role that regional governments also had during the last decade in terms of investment in these sectors and therefore in the consequences that the misuse of funds and poor planning brought to their constituents.

A lot of the issues the country faces are rooted in the widespread corruption in all levels of government which make the attempts at transparency (e.g. National Control System) not very credible to the public. This sense of mistrust has led to the current environment of instability. In the last 4 years a constant battle between the Executive, Legislative and at times the Judicial powers has resulted in a Presidential resignation, an unsuccessful attempt at vacating the President as well as the closing of Congress.

In conclusion, the implementation, enforcement and monitoring of policies in Peru take place within a flawed decentralized system in which corruption is widespread. This context makes the whole policy-making process very slow in addressing the urgent needs of the country and very hard for citizens to hold their authorities accountable.

## **References**

1. ↑ Political Constitution of Peru - 1993
2. ↑ Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2013): El procedimiento legislativo en el Congreso de la República
3. ↑ Robinson Urtecho (2012): Manual del Proceso Legislativo
4. ↑ Law 27785: Ley Orgánica del Sistema Nacional de Control y de la Contraloría General de la República
5. ↑ Contraloría General de la República: Sistema Nacional de Control.
6. ↑ Estado Peruano
7. ↑ Presidencia de la República del Perú
8. ↑ Presidencia de Consejo de Ministros
9. ↑ Congreso de la República
10. ↑ Tribunal Constitucional
11. ↑ Contraloría General de la República: Sistema Nacional de Control
12. ↑ Martinez-Vazquez (2013). Fiscal Decentralization in Peru: A Perspective on Recent Developments and Future Challenges
13. ↑ Gestión (2018). PPK Renuncia: Lea la carta enviada al Congreso de la República
14. ↑ Carlos E. Cué; Jaqueline Fowks (2018). "El Congreso acepta la renuncia de Kuczynski y abre paso al nuevo presidente"
15. ↑ Telesur (2020). Vizcarra Appeals Vacancy Motion To Constitutional Court
16. ↑ France24 (2020). President Vizcarra survives impeachment vote
17. ↑ El Comercio (2019). Pleno aprobó otorgar la confianza al Ejecutivo durante mensaje de Martín Vizcarra
18. ↑ El Comercio (2019). Vizcarra oficializa disolución del Congreso y convoca a elecciones para enero de 2020.