This article addresses the political and institutional conditions explaining the lack of a substantive reform of the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Considering the political as well as the dynamics of the institutional development, the article suggests three key factors explaining the lack of change: the lack of political incentives to address a comprehensive reform, the capacity of organizational adaptation of the ministry through the development of a "parallel bureaucracy", and the lack of consensus among public servants to promote an specific agenda. This article provides a theoretical contribution by identifying several causal mechanisms explaining the lack of reforms within the state apparatus, and an empirical contribution by providing a systematization of the perception of civil servants on issues related to the modernization of the state.