The reform of the State is at the centre of the periphery countries' agenda; it fulfils the conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund and by the World Bank, as well as being part of the policies that aim at expanding the private sphere in detriment of the public one. Technological determinism - expressed by the globalisation ideology - and the use of a vocabulary that makes the discourses of both left and right seem very similar (as it occurs in the case of matters such as autonomy, civil society and the critique of statism) contribute towards the construction of the dominant ideology. Here we make a critique of the discourse that makes these reforms seem inexorable, support the rupture with the neo-liberal macroeconomic policies in order to guarantee the concretisation of the post neo-liberal transition and defend the opposition between the public and the private as a strategy for the construction of alternatives. We argue that the reforms will strengthen the dependent capitalist condition of this country and, widening its cultural heteronomy, will further intensify the existing educational and technological-scientific apartheid, with serious social consequences. We also suggest that the construction of an ethical and public State demands the strengthening of social movements, their autonomy vis-à-vis governments and the elaboration of critical theories related to the State in a society that is not subdued to the order of Capital.
State; public; private; ideology; education