¡ES LA POLÍTICA! EXPLICANDO LA RECENTRALIZACIÓN DE RECURSOS EN CONTEXTOS ECONÓMICOS DIVERGENTES. LOS CASOS DE BRASIL Y COLOMBIA

• Main Author: Alejandro Angel
• Format: Article
• Language: Catalan
• Published: Institut d'Estudis de l'Autogovern 2016-04-01
• Series: Revista d'Estudis Autonòmics i Federals
• Subjects: Recentralization; Brazil; Colombia; constitutions; debt
• Online Access: http://presidencia.gencat.cat/web/.content/ambits_actuacio/desenvolupament_autogovern/iea/Publicacions/REAF/REAF-articles/REAF-23-abril-2016/_reaf23_angel_.pdf

This paper compares a federal country, Brazil, and a centralist one, Colombia, both of which, at a given point in time, enacted a recentralization of resources despite the differences in their economies. The hypothesis is that similarities in expenditure autonomy of their intermediate-level governments are a consequence of changes in that direction enacted with the new Constitutions, dating back from 1991 in Colombia and from 1988 in Brazil. To test such hypothesis the paper first shows the differences in economic conditions during the 1990s in both countries after the Constitutional changes; subsequently, it shows how the previous developments within the realm of intergovernmental relations are very similar from the political point of view, allowing to understand how the loss of expenditure autonomy of intermediate-level governments during the 1990s took place. Finally, it concludes that the different economic realities of both national economies as well as those of intermediate-level governments, were subordinated to political priorities deriving from long-term processes. Debt allowed for the recentralization in both countries because of the use it was subject to.