The vertical division of Argentine State labor (1989-2019). The danger of a catastrophic tie in the two-story State

Abstract

 The article analyzes the vertical division of State labor in Argentina during the last thirty years, within the framework of the changes that are taking place in the international scenario. For these purposes, we work with the statistical series on public spending carried out by the National Ministry of Finance. The budget study makes it possible to visualize that the decentralization reforms implemented in the 1990s, under the influence of international financial organizations, consolidated a two-story State model that continues to this day. This structure specializes the central government in social security spending and the financing of programs, and the subnational levels in the construction of governance and territorial management. However, the rigidity of the model is unstable. The most sensitive indicator to measure cyclical instability is given by the expenditures destined to debt services. On this basis, potential challenges are analyzed to sustain the current function organization scheme at the intergovernmental level in the face of the Chinese emergency in the new global scenario.