This is the first of a duology of articles reporting on an action research project about public health services in Venezuela. This first paper presents a summary of a conceptual framework from which a process of intervention was launched. The second paper, which follows immediately after the first in this special issue, presents a narrative of the intervention process and a final discussion about it.

The conceptual framework is constituted by two different types of interpretive models of the role of the state concerning health services. On the one hand, four "logical" interpretive models are summarized. They correspond to four different theories about the socioeconomic mission of the state in a modern society. Different thematic interpretations concerning the role of the state in health services are derived from such general missions. On the other hand, two different and, to a certain degree, opposed "historical" interpretive models about the present Venezuelan socioeconomic-political situation and their corresponding power structures are outlined. The four "logical" interpretive models are discussed in the light of the two "historical" models in terms of desirable and feasible courses of political action.