Factionalism, Centralism, and Federalism in Argentina

Abstract

Along with their renewed attention to the other principles and provisions of Argentina's 137-year-old constitution, many Argentine leaders since 1983 have looked to federalism as one way to reduce the excessively centralized state that is often blamedfor the country's authoritarian governments since 1930 and worsening economic inefficiency since the 1940s. They have not advocated a return to the factional period of 1810 to 1880, when federalist ideas first were proposed amidst violent struggles between various provinces. Rather, they have drawn on those ideas and developed proposals about how federalism could help the nation alter some political structures built from 1880 through 1982. Reversing a century of centralism has begun with difficulty, but the current problems faced by the national government give the proposals a significant chance of being implemented.