Federal Tax Revenue Sharing. History and Prospects of a Fiscal Conflict

Abstract

This article examines the operation of Argentina’s Federal Tax Revenue Sharing system using theoretical and conceptual tools drawn from conflict sociology and the theory of social games. It seeks to address the following questions: How did the legal mechanisms employed by the national government and the provinces to distribute federal tax revenues originate? Why has Congress failed to enact a new Federal Tax Revenue Sharing Law, despite the constitutional mandate to do so and the recommendations of extensive literature on fiscal federalism? Could “conflictivist” theoretical approaches provide an alternative path to resolving this long-standing
issue?