Una Revisión Histórica del Concepto de Políticas Públicas: El Caso de la Monarquía Hispánica (Siglos XVI-XIX)

Certain consensus has been achieved in considering the concept of “public policies” as typical of liberal democracies and, therefore, a product of the affirmation of the contemporary State of Law. The objective of this article is to discuss this paradigm, and to affirm that this government tool was not a contemporary invention, nor even less the monopoly of the democratic State of Law. In fact, already during the Ancient Regime the authorities promoted public policies. In order to demonstrate the hypothesis that nothing avoids that the concept of “public policies” is utilized to analyse, to describe and to categorize the governmental action of the State of Ancient Regime, the article will focus on a specific political and institutional context, the Hispanic Monarchy, to identify public policies for fire risk reduction and for public health, promoted by the Crown and its agents.