Concierto Económico vasco

El artículo analiza el actual sistema federal de Suiza, centrándose principalmente en el ámbito fiscal y financiero. Entre otros, analiza los sistemas de financiación de los tres niveles de Gobierno: Confederación, cantones y municipios.
The article analyses the current federal system of Switzerland, focusing mainly on the fiscal and financial area. Among others, it analyses the funding systems of the three levels of government: Confederation, cantons and municipalities.

The article focuses on explaining and comparing the exercise of tax power by Basque and Swiss sub-central governments from a historical perspective. On the one hand, Switzerland, by tradition, was and continues to be one of the most paradigmatic examples of European federalism. On the other, under the agreement system (Concierto Económico), the Basque provinces of Araba, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Navarre formed an exception within Spain, shaping a federal-type system of fiscal and financial relations between these sub-state entities and the state. By comparing and contrasting the two case studies, the article aims to identify key factors involved in nation-state building processes in federal systems. In particular, the benchmarking exercise places special emphasis on the extent and impact of the institutional changes in the tax landscape. The first part of the article establishes the historical and institutional framework of both realities. After that it is going to analyse and compare the extent and scope of the fiscal and financial self-government exercised by Basque and Swiss sub-central governments in the first third of the XX century and from the last third of the XX century to the present. The article ends providing some conclusions and reflections from a comparative perspective on the European integration process.