A New Regional Federalism: Rhetoric or Imagining Political Possibilities

JULIETA GAZTAÑAGA

Copenhagen

Congreso; 5th Nordic Latin American Research Network Conference; 2010

University of Copenhagen

In Argentina, as in many other countries, Federalism has been tensioning -and still does- the debates that nurture the relationships between Provinces and Nation. This debate runs mainly in terms of disputes and negotiations toward territorial political organization, administration of resources, and decision making.  However, within the last years we have witnessed the stem of a new geopolitical dynamics of federalism where the latter appears as synonym of sub-national regionalization; this is alongside with the exacerbation of certain public debates raised after some changes of fiscal aspects of Argentine federalism –which for certain constitutionalists would contradict its political aspects. Expressly, the provincial governments of Córdoba, Entre Ríos, and Santa Fe joined themselves seeking to consolidate a “true federalism”, calling together their powerful economies, and their political and party capitals in order to institutionalize “La Región Centro de la República Argentina”.  Focusing on the social representations of its political boosters through an ethnographical approach, this paper aims to inquire how federalism within Región Centro is not only rhetoric of traditional negotiations over economic resources among provinces and the national state, but also a sign language and a privileged space of political imagination.