Federalism in Ibero-America: Meaningful Autonomy?

This paper discusses the federal nature of Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Spain, four countries that are underexplored in the literature on comparative federalism. As a principle of state organization and mode of government, federalism’s essence is the entrenched autonomy of several constituent units and a central government (Fenna and Schnabel, 2024). A federation thus is a political system that comprises (at least) two orders of government that enjoy constitutional recognition; that each have a direct relationship with the people and meaningful autonomy; and whose status and powers are constitutionally entrenched. Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Spain clearly meet most of these criteria and are more similar to federations than to unitary countries. However, final judgment of the four Ibero-American countries’ federality hinges on whether the provinces, states, and Autonomous Communities possess meaningful autonomy. Drawing on the insights from a book manuscript titled Handbook on Federalism in Ibero-America (currently in production), this paper reviews the basic structure, division of powers, fiscal federalism, bicameralism and IGR, and the role of the final court in each country and discusses their implications for constituent unit autonomy. It also identifies differences and similarities among the four countries and argues that there is no distinct Ibero-American model of federalism.