About Argentina

The República Argentina is a federation composed of 22 provinces and the National Territory of Tierra del Fuego. The capital, Buenos Aires, is a separate Federal District, which must not be confused with the Provincia de Buenos Aires.

As concerns the locations of sovereignty, the actual distribution of powers and functions very much favours the Republic which has a long list of enumerated powers. The Constitution, in Article 67, reserves 28 exclusive powers to the Republic. These include the typical exclusive federal powers like foreign affairs, defence, citizenship, international commerce and customs, internal trade, finance, banking, currency, coinage, and nationwide public services like post and telecommunication services, railways and shipping. Article 67 also assigns powers to the national government which are either typical for the concurrent list or are generally reserved for the constituent states, e.g. secondary and higher education, social welfare, economic planning and the enactment of the criminal, civil, commercial, mining, labour and social security codes. In Article 108 the provinces are explicitly withheld these powers.

The residue of powers is left to the provinces. These have only a small revenue base and as a rule have to subsist on federal grants-in-aid. Each province has its own constitution and elected legislature and governor. It is a characteristics of the provincial legislatures of Argentina that they are mostly bicameral. In the Federal District the national Congress exercises exclusive legislation.

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