Origin and Impact of Quality Standards on Public Administration

This work focuses on the path that the notion quality -in its current meaning- has followed within public administration. It reviews the origin and changes that the concept has undergone. Particularly, it emphasizes the facts and the context which enabled quality to raise as a transformation axis which foresaw a substantial improvement in the way of providing services, from the changes made to internal public administration processes, following with the application of the procedures which profit organizations used to improve their Performance efficiency,and ending with the quality charters of the service. In this vein, is also highlights the work performed by international organizations which have promoted models and quality standards, with particular emphasis on the International Organization for Standardization ISO, to know their nature and sources of egitimacy and authority to certify public administration. Finally, we review the implementation of quality and standards of quality in the Mexican public administration.