Intergovernmental Profile: Argentina

The federal constitution provides the basis for Argentina’s intergovernmental structure at the province and local levels. Argentina is divided in 23 provinces plus the capital city of Buenos Aires and 2,327 municipalities. All provinces and municipalities have the same functions and responsibilities irrespective of their level of development. While provinces functions are extensive and cover all areas of government, municipalities functions are centered around general local government services such as waste collection. Provinces have large SOE sectors, including the ownership of electric and water utilities.

Both provinces and municipalities are devolved subnational government institutions with extensive powers and functions, though provinces are disproportionately more relevant in terms of public service provision. Province governments replicate the federal structure of an executive, legislative, and judiciary branches. Governors and state legislators are elected directly every 4 and 2 years, respectively. Municipalities have a local council presided over by a mayor. Although municipalities are operate as autonomous government institutions and authoritatively pass their own budgets, their functional responsibilities are largely limited to exclusive local government functions, while municipal taxes and charges are determined at the provincial level.

Assignment of functions and responsibilities in Argentina is complicated, particularly between the federal and the provincial level. Functions like education and health are concurrent, with little clarity as to where the responsibilities for each level of government begins and ends. In practice, local governments play a limited role in concurrent functions, such as public education, public health and social protection. Some taxes are also concurrent, with effective double consumption taxes being common. The latest round of reforms tried to clarify the responsibilities of provinces, while trying to simplify their complicated tax structure and overlapping with the federal government. Water and electricity are provincial functions, with the exception of the city of Buenos Aires, where the federal government provides these services.