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Departments (Spanish: departamentos) form the second level of administrative division (below the provinces), and are subdivided in municipalities. They are extended in all of Argentina except for the Province of Buenos Aires and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the national capital, each of which has different administrative arrangements (respectively partidos and comunas).
Except in La Rioja, Mendoza, and San Juan Provinces, departments have no executive authorities or assemblies of their own. However, they serve as territorial constituencies for the election of members of the legislative bodies of most provinces. For example, in Santa Fe Province, each department returns one senator to the provincial senate. In Tucumán Province, on the other hand, where legislators are elected by zone (Capital, East, West) the departments serve only as districts for the organization of certain civil agencies, such as the police or the health system.
There are 377 departments in all, not including the two "nominal" departments composed of internationally disputed territory in Tierra del Fuego Province: Antártida Argentina, and Islas del Atlántico Sur (which includes the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands). Of the department names, 31 are not unique within Argentina, with the result that 90 departments have identically or similarly named counterparts in one or more other Argentine province.