Determinants of state capacity in the Argentinian provinces

Authors

  • Pablo Ezequiel Balán Universidad de San Andrés

Keywords:

Federalism, Subnational politics, State capacity

Abstract

Why do Argentine provinces differ in their state capacity? A recent family of models predicts a positive relationship between democracy and extractive capacity, and a negative relationship between income inequality and extractive capacity (Besley y Persson 2009; 2011; Cárdenas 2010). These hypotheses are tested at the subnational level of a federal country: the Argentine provinces in the period 1991-2001. Results show that (i) the level of subnational democracy has a negative effect on the extractive capacity of local governments, (ii) income inequality has a negative effect on extractive capacity, and (iii) the effect of federal transfers on extractive capacity is not statistically significant. From a theoretical point of view, the most important result is the negative association between the level of subnational democracy and the level of extractive capacity: this raises some doubts on most of the recent literature on the subject and opens the possibility of an “olsonian logic” (Olson 1993): governors with less restrictions could have an “encompassing interest” in their subnational polities.

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Author Biography

Pablo Ezequiel Balán, Universidad de San Andrés

Licenciado summa cum laude en Ciencia Política (Universidad de San Andrés). Estudiante de la Maestría en Ciencia Política (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella).

Published

2023-04-11

How to Cite

Balán, P. E. (2023). Determinants of state capacity in the Argentinian provinces. Colección, (23), 13–54. Retrieved from http://200.16.86.39/index.php/COLEC/article/view/867

Issue

Section

Research Articles