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Six - Policy analysis in local government: objects, perspectives, andactors
- Edited by Laura Chaqués-Bonafont, Universitat de Barcelona, Jacint Jordana, Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals, Spain
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- Book:
- Policy Analysis in Spain
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 13 October 2022
- Print publication:
- 29 April 2022, pp 102-123
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Summary
Introduction
Studies of policy analysis at the local level in Spain emerged in themid-1980s. The first studies were mainly intended to explain local politicalelites, the configuration of local institutional structures after thetransition to democracy (Baras et al, 1988; Botella, 1992; Capo, 1992), andthe political process in the local area (Subirats et al, 1985). Subirats etal (1985) developed one of the first studies of economic and social-economicpolicy initiatives at the local level, even before the passing of the newlaw on local government. In this seminal study, Subirats et al (1985) aimedto ‘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 of policyanalysis with significant differences across policy areas. In some cases,such as policies regarding citizen participation, policy design andimplementation resulted from an open dialogue between local governments andacademia. This collaboration allowed scholars to have direct access to data,politicians, and practitioners, and local governments and institutions alsobenefited from the direct link with academia. This interaction providedinnovative practices, new tools, and narratives and also channelled thetransference of knowledge to the local government network, enabling theelaboration of applied analysis but with an undeniably theoreticaldimension.
Policy analysis at the local level has three main features: (1) in mostcases, policy analysis is the result of an intense and regular collaborationbetween local governments, university scholars, and research institutes,which in some cases are directly incorporated into administrativestructures; (2) most policy analyses follow case studies and qualitativeapproaches in terms of the methodological design – in most cases,these are single case studies based on in-depth interviews and focus groups;and (3) most analyses are focussed on a specific policy area. The particularpolicy area is relevant because it has an impact on the methodologicalapproach.
5 - One Size Does Not Fit All: Growing Cities and Shrinking Towns in the Spanish Local Map
- Edited by Marta Lackowska, Uniwersytet Warszawski, Katarzyna Szmigiel-Rawska, Uniwersytet Warszawski, Filipe Teles, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal
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- Book:
- Local Government in Europe
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 13 May 2022
- Print publication:
- 08 September 2021, pp 81-98
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Summary
Introduction
One of the most striking features of the Spanish local system is the varied size of municipalities and particularly the high number of very small governmental units. Indeed, 50 per cent of municipalities have less than 500 inhabitants and 1,360 have less than 100 inhabitants. However, big cities like Madrid (3.2 million inhabitants), Barcelona (1.6), Seville (0.8), ten other cities with more than 300,000 and an additional 50 cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants are also part of this diverse landscape. Some authors have referred to the Spanish local system as the ‘local galaxy’ (Botella, 1992) and they are right. The galaxy comprises big stars, medium planets and thousands of tiny asteroids.
Such a picture indicates that Spain has been absent from the trend of territorial consolidation reforms that started in the 1950s in Scandinavian countries and have continued through the present day. Just between 2008 and 2017, municipal territorial amalgamation has occurred in 15 European countries (Swianiewicz, 2018). Making local governments perform more functions, thereby generating economies of scale and reducing problems of free-riding, which have been the intended goals behind such reforms (Swianiewicz, 2010).
In Spain, consolidation reforms have barely been present in the national political conversation. Only few proposals have been considered but never adopted. The most recent has been in the local government reform of 2013, where an attempt to merge municipalities was included in a first draft of the relevant statute (Navarro and Pano, 2019), but it was omitted from the final version, thus illustrating how territorial organization reforms are among the most politically difficult (Swianiewicz, 2018). On the contrary, historical inertia has defined the (non)evolution of the local map. For provinces, the number of territorial boundaries are exactly the same as they were almost two centuries ago. For municipalities, their number and territorial limits are very similar to what we could find a century ago. In 1813, there were about 12,000 villages, while the census of 1900 gave a figure of 9,214. Today the number of municipalities (1,824) is indeed lower, but not so much lower as to represent a substantial change in the local map.
The choice of no change in combination with a rigid legal system regulating local government has had its consequences, which we attempt to analyse in the present chapter.