Introduction

Studies of policy analysis at the local level in Spain emerged in themid-1980s. The first studies were mainly intended to explain localpolitical elites, the configuration of local institutionalstructures after the transition to democracy (Baras et al, 1988;Botella, 1992; Capo, 1992), and the political process in the localarea (Subirats et al, 1985). Subirats et al (1985) developed one ofthe first studies of economic and social-economic policy initiativesat the local level, even before the passing of the new law on localgovernment. In this seminal study, Subirats et al (1985) aimed to‘consider the current problems of the city and its futureprojection. The development of the city as a milestone imposes a newmentality, a new management and a project for the future’. Thissentence illustrates the political moment. The local arena and localpolicies were still developing, and at the same time, the tools andapproaches of policy analysis also began to yield studies andcontributions.

Local governments were particularly active in the development ofpolicy analysis with significant differences across policy areas. Insome cases, such as policies regarding citizen participation, policydesign and implementation resulted from an open dialogue betweenlocal governments and academia. This collaboration allowed scholarsto have direct access to data, politicians, and practitioners, andlocal governments and institutions also benefited from the directlink with academia. This interaction provided innovative practices,new tools, and narratives and also channelled the transference ofknowledge to the local government network, enabling the elaborationof applied analysis but with an undeniably theoreticaldimension.

Policy analysis at the local level has three main features: (1) inmost cases, policy analysis is the result of an intense and regularcollaboration between local governments, university scholars, andresearch institutes, which in some cases are directly incorporatedinto administrative structures; (2) most policy analyses follow casestudies and qualitative approaches in terms of the methodologicaldesign – in most cases, these are single case studies based onin-depth interviews and focus groups; and (3) most analyses arefocussed on a specific policy area. The particular policy area isrelevant because it has an impact on the methodologicalapproach.