TAX FEDERALISM IN LATIN AMERICA: THE CASES OF MÉXICO, ARGENTINA AND BRAZIL

The federalism is a unique expression of a political form adopted by the state. Because of that, it is possible to affirm that there is no universal or global model to be adopted by all the countries that aims the federal form. The tax power given to the subnational levels is the key to sustain a federal form because without it the political decentralization might not happen. Because of that, it was decided to develop a focused paper on fiscal federalism in America Latina context with three countries: Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. All three, in their own way, developed huge levels of fiscal centralization. In the end, the results tends to be very close in political terms and consequences to an inefficient fiscal federalism that tends to stifle the autonomy of the federated units