This chapter examines the evolution of civil service reform in Latin America through a comparative analysis of seven national cases—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. It identifies a general pattern of gradual yet partial modernization: while most countries have strengthened legal frameworks, recruitment systems, and HR information tools, deeper reforms—such as those involving pay architecture, career mobility, and senior executive professionalization—remain incomplete. Argentina and Peru illustrate dual pressures of expansion and fragmentation through widespread temporary hiring. Brazil and Costa Rica show attempts to rationalize and unify systems through constitutional and framework reforms, albeit with slow or blocked implementation. Chile and Uruguay exemplify gradual adjustments in employment regimes and compensation structures, the latter preparing an occupation-based career system. Paraguay advances with regularization initiatives and new entry procedures. Across cases, reforms face persistent tensions between meritocratic coherence and the political or fiscal need for flexibility. Regional trends include waves of regularization, professional “enclaves,” and limited performance evaluation mechanisms. The chapter concludes that without stable political coalitions and institutional capacity to sustain merit-based reforms, Latin American bureaucracies will continue to oscillate between legal formality and practical informality—modernized in design, but fragile in operation.