Sub-national Local Autonomy Index in Urugua

Abstract

Local autonomy and the relationship between levels of government has been an important topic of various disciplines and public policies. The recent application of a local autonomy index in Europe (Ladner, Keuffer and Baldersheim, 2016; Ladner et al., 2019), is an important advance for the measurement of autonomy from a multidimensional perspective, including fiscal, political, legal and organizational aspects. This article expands this research agenda with a perspective that allows us to capture the subnational differences of local autonomy in Uruguay. The patterns of the Provincial Governments in their levels and types of autonomy are analysed, as well as the relevant variables for different dimensions identified, applying exploratory data analysis techniques.