In the late 1960's the Executive Branch of the Venezuelan government launched a massive reform of its mechanism of public administration in order to make it more supportive of the development needs of the country. This paper is an effort to analyze the process of organizational change as it takes place within one segment of the public administration mechanism in Venezuela--The Ministry of Education. The thrust of the reform calls for a reallocation of power in the Ministry with the intended purpose of establishing a regionalized education system supported by a decentralized decision-making process. The primary resistance factors identified during the first 4-year experience of the reform (referred to as the "start up" phase) were out of power political parties, informal vested interest groups, and individuals who would clearly lose a measure of their influence through the reallocation process. Even though the resistance to change has been formidable, a measure of progress has been recorded which suggests that a modest but genuine transition is taking place. (Author)