Argentine federalism seems to be convicted of persistent contradiction: the legitimate defense of territorial interests, which is often transformed into myopic localism, versus the need to think of an integrated national development that sometimes demands something as unpopular as voluntary renunciation of certain privileges.
It is understandable. The provinces have rightly learned that “who does not cry does not mam”, and that he who remains still does not receive the grant for access to the hospital. But that gymnastics – accumulated in decades of federalism of survival – has generated a political culture based more on the bid for resources than in the construction of a common project.
Now, is it possible for a province to say: “This could serve me, maybe it serves more if it goes to another”? Can we even imagine that scene?
The replication of the State and the race for the save who can
The decision of President Javier Milei to reduce the national State and transfer responsibilities to the provinces – without the corresponding funds – has radically altered the federal dynamics. He has not solved any problem, he has simply redistributed them down. The need, debt, demand: everything is now managed from inside. But without box.
And as if that were not enough, instead of promoting cooperation, the replication of the national state pushes the provinces to compete with each other. Each jurisdiction competes for what remains: investments, subsidies, infrastructure. And as usually happens in these cases, those who have already come better. The circle closes for the usual.
This model does not strengthen federalism: it puts it on the verge of collapse. Because a country cannot be sustained based on the law of the strongest or most persuasive before the Casa Rosada. When the rotten egg appears, we all get the distracted. But someone always takes it on.
An old story, a challenge still unfinished
The tension between center and periphery is not novelty. Alberdi, Sarmiento, and so many others thought about it. But we continue without solving it. Provincial autonomy is a right, yes. But without a nation that contains them, coordinates them and proposes a common horizon, it becomes an emergency no archipelago shared.
And so, each province becomes its own embassy, negotiating in solitude, without a real federal strategy. The logic of “first mine” is imposed and, with it, the impossibility of articulating a minimally equitable national public policy.
Think the whole from the parties
Faced with this panorama, there is another possibility. A propositional, active federalism. That I do not satisfy with receiving, but Propose Argentine ideas. That does not measure its importance due to the number of subsidies that start from the treasure, but for the quality of the solutions it offers to the country.
That federalism does not expect them to call it: calls. It is not contained in its jurisdiction: Think the whole from the partiesas Francisco says. That federalism does not compete in the mud: cooperate from the difference.
And yes, perhaps in that scenario the provinces have to resign something. Not due to weakness, but for political maturity. Because understanding that the development of another region can indirectly benefit its own is also a federal form of intelligence.
A new federal political subject?
What is at stake is not just a resource distribution model. Is the very idea of nation. A country is not built with 24 fragmented speeches. It needs a common narrative, an ethic of institutional cooperation, and a political will that goes beyond the immediate benefit.
Perhaps the time has come for a new federal political subject to emerge. One that represents the regions, yes, but that is not limited to claiming. To propose, to think, to articulate. That I do not fear saying: “This is good for me, but it is better for everyone, it supports it the same.”
Because if something is clear is that There is no nation without national ideas. And without a federalism that is more than a sum of interest, those ideas will have nowhere to grow.
*By Mr. Ramón Prades García, Director of the IA – Argentine Ideas
You may also interest you
By Ramón Prades García
