This paper proposes that the behavior of the public administration, understood as government actions, is conditioned by the model of state government that exists in a given country and at specific point in time. These ideas are addressed through the review of a series of common factors, beginning with the study of actions associated with state reform as deliberate transformations to renovate and redirect the different forms of public administration towards a specific goal. The paper concludes by proposing that today, in the 21st century, the state seeks to recover effective governance in the public administration.