ABSTRACT

Brazilian fiscal federalism is heavily marked by the regional inequalities and the strong municipalist tradition of the country. These aspects were dominant for building the model finally adopted by the 1988 Constitution, which aggravated the vertical and horizontal unbalances in the distribution of fiscal resources, bringing new claim for further reforms. This paper addresses the difficulties faced since then for pushing proposals for redressing the above-mentioned unbalances and point out the challenges to be met in order to bring the fiscal decentralization process in line with the ultimate goals of efficiency and accountability in the use of public resources.

KEYWORDS:
Fiscal federalismo; intergovernamental relations; tax