The outstanding institutional arrangements and intergovernmental relations in argentine fiscal federalism

Abstract

In this paper, we are going to analyze the main characteristics of argentine fiscal federalism that has emerged after the constitutional reform in 1994. For that, we are going to examine the foundations of the emerging federal design, the new distribution of fiscal competences that has resulted from the last constitutional reform and the characteristics of Nation - provinces relation in Argentine, in the context of an absent fiscal federal agreement. Secondly, in order to analyze and describe the fiscal relations between the 23 argentine provinces with their local governments, we are going to use some significant dimensions: Type and level of municipal autonomy recognition in the Provincial Constitutions; characteristics of fiscal coordination mechanisms in provincial constitutions, municipal organic laws and co-participation laws in each province; Fiscal co-participation proportions, as an autonomy degree indicator that the local governments have; and, Characteristics and relevance of provinces technical offices that are used to coordinate actions with local governments.