"Brazil is a continent-sized country and a federal republic, comprising 27 state units (including the Federal District, where the capital, Brasília, is located) and more than 5,500 municipalities with ample tax autonomy and active participation in duties usually befalling public administration, such as the provision of health and education services, public safety and various types of infrastructure. As such, Brazil's fiscal policy encompasses all three levels of the government, which jointly collect and share tax revenues and define the constitutional duties to be performed by each, as well as ways to fund them—through borrowing, for example. In the process of federal coordination, however, the central government plays a key role and holds greater power than the other levels, so that the policies outlined at the central level—beyond the national macroeconomic environment—greatly influence the room to manoeuvre for states and municipalities, in practice restricting their effective autonomy." (…)