Abstract

Comparative literature identifies three approaches to explain the creation of environmental institutions: internal degradation, diffusion, and interaction between the State and local actors. Based on a case study analysis of the creation of the Ministry of the Environment in Chile, this article posits that a paradigm shift is not necessary to establish a ministry. Through qualitative and quantitative analyses - including high-frequency textual data - the evolution of programmatic ideas and their role in the creation and consolidation of environmental institutions are examined. The article argues that the technocratic profile of the actors who drove the change favored a gradual, or second-order, transformation. This process legitimized the creation of the ministry without substantially altering the previously existing dominant interpretive framework.