The article seeks to present a substantive notion of the 'administrative procedure', that is, an understanding that departs from the merely procedural or formal meaning that has been consolidated in Chile from the definition adopted by the Administrative Procedures Act ("lbpa") and analyses the institutional purposes that have been assigned to the administrative procedure by foreign literature. The paper develops an explanation about the origins of this formal understanding and exposes the doctrine that has been consolidated in Europe to explain the institution from a substantial point of view. It is argued that this substantive notion can also be constructed in Chile from a systematic reading of some of the provisions of the law on administrative procedures.