Policy analysis in Argentine local governments: a growing, heterogeneous, and controversial field of study

Abstract

This chapter will characterize the production of public policies at the local level, based on the review of works on the subject carried out by academics, provincial and local governments, and public innovation spaces. We structure this work based on the following topics, which have been developed from the decentralization of the 1990s to the present day: first, the degrees of municipal autonomy in the federal regime of government: local governments have exclusive, complementary, and concurrent powers with the federal and provincial levels. However, this municipal autonomy is not a reality in all municipalities because each provincial constitution establishes different degrees of autonomy. Second, the different roles and functions of local levels of government: the decentralization of the 1990s changed municipalities towards an active local government, with an expansion of local functions. Third, local capacities for policy management: in this process of incorporating new roles and functions, municipalities have developed unequal capacities and knowledge for policy making. Fourth, the dominant types of intergovernmental relations in public policies: local governments develop a complex web of intergovernmental relations. We can characterize them according to their political or sectoral sign, horizontal or vertical, and cooperation or conflict.