In the first presentation of the Chair of Public Policies and Sustainable Development of the year 2021, lawyer Juan Ezequiel Lozano, president of the Argentine Association of Public Administration, spoke.

“The case of Argentine federalism after the 1994 reform” was the topic presented in the first Chair of Public Policies and Sustainable Development of the year 2021, organized by the Faculty of Cs. Social, Business and Legal -FACSEJ- from the University of La Serena, and whose speaker was the president of the Argentine Association of Public Administration, lawyer Juan Ezequiel Lozano.

On the occasion, the president of the trans-Andean organization explained the characteristics of federalism, how this system of government works, and the experience that Argentina has had under this system. Firstly, he highlighted that the countries that are considered federal “represent less than 30% of the total countries and there are divergences of such an entity that reinforce this idea that federalism, as such, or a federal organization in its purest form, does not exist".

Regarding the characteristics of federalism, Lozano pointed out that this system of government requires “yes or yes a decentralization in at least 2 levels of government, 2 state levels must coexist in order to be talking about federalism. In the case of Argentina, this is the existence of the provinces, which are the primary administrative units, and the existence of the federal nation or the Argentine Republic, which brings them together."

Another characteristic that the president of the Argentine Association of Public Administration, Juan Ezequiel Lozano, highlighted about this system is that there must be a constitution that is “unifying and that harmonizes all the existing autonomies within the republic. This is relevant so as not to confuse a federal state with a confederation, since, in the latter, the states that make it up remain sovereign, free and independent and can self-determine independently of the confederation."

In that sense, the lawyer's presentation provided important clues about the advantages and disadvantages of the decentralization of a country, which also responded to the doubts raised by the attendees about the possibility that Chile has of adopting such a model, especially in gates of the constituent process that we are experiencing and that could be key for a political-social decision of this type.

Finally, those attending the lecture expressed their gratitude to the lawyer Juan Ezequiel Lozano for the interesting topic presented and, for her part, the Dean of the Faculty of Social, Business and Legal Sciences, Dr. Luperfina Rojas Escobar, thanked the speaker for his time. , emphasizing the working relationship that FACSEJ maintains with the Argentine Association of Public Administration.

About the exhibitor

Juan Ezequiel Lozano is a lawyer from the University of Buenos Aires, and has a master's degree in Administrative Law from the Universidad Abierta Interamericana. He is currently president of the Argentine Association of Public Administration and has held advisory and executive positions in the Public Administration for entities such as the Ministry of Federal Planning, Public Works and Services of the Nation, the Ministry of Finance of the Nation, the Ministry of Education of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, General Directorate of Culture and Education of the Province of Buenos Aires, among others.

Written by Consuelo Peña Gamboa, FACSEJ