Provinces of Argentina

Argentina has 23 provinces (, singular ) and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires, which serves as the federal capital, as determined by Congress.

The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions and exist under a federal system.

History

During the War of Independence, cities and their surrounding areas became provinces through local councils (cabildos). This process was finalized during the Anarchy of the Year XX, forming the first 13 provinces.

Jujuy seceded from Salta in 1834, and the thirteen provinces became fourteen. After seceding for a decade, Buenos Aires Province accepted the 1853 Constitution of Argentina in 1861, and its capital city was made a federal territory in 1880.

A law from 1862 designated as national territories those territories under federal control but outside the frontiers of the provinces. In 1884 they served as bases for the establishment of the governorates of Misiones, Formosa, Chaco, La Pampa, Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego. The agreement about a frontier dispute with Chile in 1900 created the National Territory of Los Andes; its lands were incorporated into Jujuy, Salta and Catamarca in 1943. La Pampa and Chaco became provinces in 1951. Misiones did so in 1953, and Formosa, Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut and Santa Cruz, in 1955. The last national territory, Tierra del Fuego, became the Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province in 1990. This province nominally includes Argentina's claims to the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and to a segment of Antarctica that overlaps with the British and Chilean claims on that continent.

Political organization

Argentina is a federation of twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires. Provinces are divided for administration purposes into departments and municipalities, except for Buenos Aires Province, which is divided into partidos and localidades. Buenos Aires City itself is divided into communes (comuna) and non-official neighbourhoods (barrios).

Provinces hold all the power that they chose not to delegate to the federal government; they must be representative commonwealths and must not contradict the Constitution. Beyond this, they are fully autonomous: they enact their own constitutions, freely organize their local governments, and own and manage their natural and financial resources. Thus, each province has its own set of provincial laws and justice system, a supreme court, a governor, an autonomous police force, and a congress; in eight provinces, the legislature is bicameral, comprising an upper chamber (the Senate) and a lower chamber (the House of Deputies), while in the remaining fifteen provinces and in Buenos Aires City, it is unicameral.

In case of sedition, insurrection, territorial invasion, or any other emerging threats against the laws of the nation on any province or the federal capital, the Congress has the authority to declare a federal intervention on the compromised district, even in the absence of a formal request by the affected part. When Congress is in recess and thus unable to intervene, the President is entitled to decree such intervention, but this executive order is subject to Congressional override upon the Houses' immediate reassembly. Once the intervention is declared the compromised district's government is immediately dissolved—in whole or in part depending on Congressional decision—and the President appoints a representative or intervenor, who will serve for a short time until the emergency is solved. Since 1983 four provinces were intervened, namely Catamarca, Corrientes (twice), Santiago del Estero (twice), and Tucumán.

During the 20th century, some provinces have had governments that were traditionally controlled by a single family (i.e. the Saadi family in Catamarca, or the Sapag family in Neuquén); in one case, it is still the same situation as of 2009: the province of San Luis was ruled almost without a break by the Rodríguez Saá family since December 1983.

Article 62 of the Constitution of the city of Buenos Aires states that "Suffrage is free, equal, secret, universal, compulsory and not accumulative. The foreign residents enjoy this right, with the correlative obligations, on equal terms with Argentine citizens registered in this district, in the terms established by the law."

List of provinces

+ Provinces of Argentina Flag Province Capital Secondary capital Density perkm2 Autonomous City of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires N/A DF 3,121,707 15,161.3 Buenos Aires La Plata La Matanza and General Pueyrredón BA 17,523,996 57.3 Catamarca San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca Tinogasta CT 429,562 4.2 Chaco Resistencia Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña CC 1,129,606 11.3 Chubut Rawson Comodoro Rivadavia CH 592,621 2.6 Córdoba Córdoba Río Cuarto CB 3,840,905 23.3 Corrientes Corrientes Goya CN 1,212,696 13.6 Entre Ríos Paraná Concordia ER 1,425,578 18.2 Formosa Formosa Formosa FM 607,419 8.0 Jujuy San Salvador de Jujuy San Pedro de Jujuy JY 811,611 15.2 La Pampa Santa Rosa General Pico LP 361,859 2.5 La Rioja La Rioja Chilecito LR 383,865 4.2 Mendoza Mendoza Guaymallén MZ 2,043,540 13.7 Misiones Posadas Oberá MN 1,278,873 42.8 Neuquén Neuquén Cutral Có NQ 710,814 7.5 Río Negro Viedma San Carlos de Bariloche RN 750,768 3.7 Salta Salta San Ramón de la Nueva Orán SA 1,441,351 9.3 San Juan San Juan Caucete SJ 822,853 9.3 San Luis San Luis Villa Mercedes SL 542,069 7.2 Santa Cruz Río Gallegos Caleta Olivia SC 337,226 1.4 Santa Fe Santa Fe Rosario SF 3,544,908 26.6 Santiago del Estero Santiago del Estero La Banda SE 1,060,906 7.7 Tierra del Fuego Ushuaia Río Grande TF 185,651* *8.8* Tucumán San Miguel de Tucumán Monteros TM 1,731,820 76.7 * Derived from multiple values

Provinces of Argentina

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