중남미

Argentina is by its constitution a federal republic, but in realityit has been developed as an excessively centralized political system. However, since 1983 there has been democratization in which partisancompetition and elections have been reorganized around subregionalgovernments and political actors. In this paper I argue that the federalsystem and the decentralization policy are the principal causes ofthe recent denationalization of the competitive structure of politicalparties in Argentina. The federal electoral system which producesa legislative problem of malapportionment and overrepresentation,as well as the federal revenue sharing system which grants a favorabletransfer of fiscal resources to poor provinces, together account forthe increased subregional political strength. The decentralization policyin the era of the 1990’s was carried out in order to reduce deficits,but in fact it contributed more to increasing provincial politicalsignificance rather than achieving economic effectiveness. The fiscalfederalism with its emphasis on economic efficiency and the federalelectoral system with its emphasis on political equity imperatives havetogether become the two main factors that limit Argentine politicaldevelopment without achieving political autonomy and economicindependence.