The Politics of Re-centralization in Argentina and Brazil
By Kent Eaton, Tyler Dickovick. Latin American Research Review, 2004
146 citations recorded by the source corpus.
In response to the growing salience of re-centralization in several Latin American countries that decentralized in the 1980s and 1990s, this paper examines presidential efforts to re-centralize fiscal power in the 1990s. In our study of re-centralization in Argentina and Brazil, we assess the utility of four common political economy explanations: the presence of economic crisis; the partisan powers of the president; the division of formal powers between the branches; and the extent of intra-bureaucratic conflict. We find that the success of economic stabilization measures facilitated re-centralization in both countries, though the pathways connecting the two phenomena were partially distinct. In Argentina, key re-centralization measures were rapidly achieved after stabilization as the result of the president's strong partisan powers and in the form of political deals within the Peronist party. Subsequently, the dissipation of President Carlos Menem's powers over the course of his second term facilitated the "return of the governors." In Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso re-centralized despite weak partisan powers, largely by using his reputation as a successful stabilizer to build a broad reform coalition. In Cardoso's Brazil, strong partisan cohesion in important cabinet posts also served as a partial substitute for the lack of partisan power in the legislature. These findings suggest the need for a closer examination of re-centralization efforts, particularly in the wake of macroeconomic stabilization and economic reform.
Subfields: Political Science and International Relations, Sociology and Political Science
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/be9512e2301b8a3a29d7cb398fed7d5c11a80dca
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Citations in the corpus
- A Sequential Theory of Decentralization: Latin American Cases in Comparative Perspective (2005, background): “…finally by political decentralization in 1994.12 On June 5, 1978, the national military junta passed two decrees transferring all national preschools and primary schools to the provinces, the city of Buenos 12 Other decentralizing and centralizing reforms followed (see Eaton and Dickovick 2004).”