Federalism and Intergovernmental Joint Mechanisms: the Functioning of the Federal Councils in Argentina

The federal system of government guarantees constitutionally two levels of government. The central feature of such a political structure is that each level chooses their own rulers, who are in charge of shared or concurrent territorial jurisdiction, namely applying decisions on the same territory. This situation raises certain dilemmas: How political actors with inconsistent agendas and powers on the same population, can agree? What procedures allow to arrange not coincidental policies and facilitate the convergence in case of policies or common programs? Based on these considerations, this research explores intergovernmental relations experienced in three policy areas, focusing on the types and causes of the agreements reached in the federal councils (areas of meeting between the provincial governments and the national government) of each sector. After the presentation of empirical data on each federal council, is stated that these agreements are reached on operational policy, with wide variations in the way they are achieved; that the presence of the national actor has a capital importance, since her voice always hits, but not necessarily is imposed or prevails; and that part of the institutions ("assignment of authority") of each policy area place a framework within which the type of "leadership" of the national actor and/or the "professional identity" between actors, together determine the degree of variation in the joint achieved. These principal variables are combined in each case with other factors that can strengthen or weaken them, though in this condition they continue being the variables that explain the variation of each council. These statements show that on theoretical-methodological terms, perspectives that focus on institutional determinants fail to decipher the operation of the federal councils. Similarly, it is noted that the approach that emphasizes on the "factors of agency" does not turn out to be sufficient either. The combination of both approaches provides analytical elements to study instances of meeting between different jurisdictional levels for public policy decision, which have proved effective in measuring and explaining the nation-provinces relationship.