Has Spain’s system of Autonomous Communities created more problems than it has solved?
Has Spain's system of Autonomous Communities created more problems than it has solved?
Following the death of General Franco in 1975, Spain embarked on a political transition to democracy. After the legalization of political parties, the first free election for 40 years was held in 1977. In 1978, a referendum approved a new democratic constitution and repealed many of the laws of the Franco era1. Previously, Spain had not successfully dealt with its problems caused by its strong regional differences, in culture, language, economic structures and politics. However, the new Constitution has been distinct in coming to terms with the long existing problem of governing a pluricultural people2, as reflected in its second Article;
"the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards, and recognizes and guarantees the right to autonomy of the nationalities and regions which make it up and the solidarity among all of them"3.
The 1978 constitution divided Spain into 17 autonomous regions, some with strong identities --such as Valencia, Galicia, the Basque Country, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands-- but others with no apparently distinct or established sense of identity other than as constituent components of Spain. The goal was to ensure the survival of Spain as a unitary state within its historic borders, while also bringing about equality and some measure of autonomy within the diversity of nationalities and regions satisfying the national aspirations of separatist-minded Catalans, Basques and others. The purpose of this essay is to answer the question whether Spain's system of Autonomous Communities has created more problems than it has solved or not. It will argue that the system of Autonomous Communities has been successful in tackling the problems by a large extent. First section will give an insight into what principles the system of Autonomous Communities is based on. Secondly, the successes of the system will be assessed against its critiques. The conclusion part will briefly give the reasons why it needs to be considered as an overall success.
First, as Gibbson writes, the autonomous regions, each has a legislative assembly elected by universal suffrage, a regional government headed by a president and a High Court of Justice4. Moreover, an "asymmetrical devolution" system came about because "regions have obtained self-governing capacities in different degrees and with different levels of responsibility for transferred services"5. Some of the communities - Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia - had a history of demand for recognition of their national identities; and thus, they were allowed to practice a 'degree of full autonomy'. The rest of the regions were given 'restricted autonomy' and had to wait for five years before getting full autonomy6. Each autonomous community has its own statue, which states both the financial and political responsibilities and rights granted to it. For example, in Catalonia, Catalan and Spanish are co-official languages, and in the Basque country, Euskera and Spanish are equally privileged. However, the aim has always been to give all regions equal powers and responsibilities eventually.
Moreover, the reallocation of expenditure responsibilities between the different levels of government7 gave regional governments in Spain a considerable responsibility for health care, education, urban planning, social services and cultural activities, albeit within the context of national policies laid down by Madrid. These policies have been funded by tax transfers from the central and local governments. Madrid retains responsibility for national issues like defense, foreign and security policy, and running the economy. Some claim that the ambiguities relating to the separation of powers between the different levels of government cause conflicts, but these conflicts are first solvable and ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
Moreover, the reallocation of expenditure responsibilities between the different levels of government7 gave regional governments in Spain a considerable responsibility for health care, education, urban planning, social services and cultural activities, albeit within the context of national policies laid down by Madrid. These policies have been funded by tax transfers from the central and local governments. Madrid retains responsibility for national issues like defense, foreign and security policy, and running the economy. Some claim that the ambiguities relating to the separation of powers between the different levels of government cause conflicts, but these conflicts are first solvable and secondly conflicts imply a democratic situations in which objective different interests are expressed. Some of these increasingly overlapping responsibilities required cooperation between the regions and the center, which brought about a dialogue between the two to the forefront. This dialogue makes central state's policies more in line with the demands of the regional identities and makes the government more effective. Guibernau expresses this point by saying
" political decentralization tends to strengthen democracy in as much as it brings decision-making closer to the people. Problems are identified, analysed and resolved where they emerge. Regional politicians usually have greater awareness of the needs, and aspirations of their electorates"8.
Although some have argued that these cause tensions when any of the central policies conflicts with a region's interests, it has always been possible to oppose and in some circumstances change these policies. For example, in 1981, the introduction of LOAPA to the Cortes, which said: " State law was always to prevail over regional law wherever there was conflict, even in the privileged 'historic regions'"9 was opposed by the historic regions as they wanted to be distinct from the rest of the regions based on their unique history. And, through the channel of the Constitutional Tribunal, in 1983 LOAPA was declared to be unconstitutional. This derives from the rationale underlying decentralisation, which is the need to treat heterogeneous situations differentially. This, in turn has fulfilled the nationalist aspirations of Catalans and Basques in particular10; hence helped Spain's diversity of nationalities to live together harmoniously under the Spanish state. Moreover, as Heywood suggests after 1989, the number of cases brought before the Constitutional Tribunal fell sharply, "suggesting that a more harmonious modus vivendi, with developed channels of communication, was becoming established between centre and regions"11.
Most importantly, there is strong evidence that the separatism of the regional nationalities has declined due to the expansion of powers followed by the decentralization. For example, the Basques now have many attributes of self-determination, short of full independence. They have their own fiscal and tax-raising powers, their own legislature and ministries that provide public services within the context of policy laid down in Madrid12. They also have their own national police force and an office in Brussels to lobby the European Union. They have set up a network of overseas offices to promote trade and Basque culture. Last year, the Basques even tried --but failed-- to secure the right for a Basque soccer team to play in international competitions. And, Polls show that about three-quarters of Spaniards believe Basque terrorism to be Spain's biggest problem13. Even in the Basque Country the latest election results show that only 200,000 out of 3 million voters voted for HB (Herri Batasuna) the political wing of the terrorist organization, ETA. The former British ambassador to Spain, Brighty, says that the overwhelming majority of Spanish citizens still want to remain a single nation. Even the most enthusiastic nationalists today are content to say they are, first, a Basque or Catalan, second, a Spaniard, and, third, a citizen of Europe14. Also, Heywood writes that on the basis of surveys covering the 1976-87 period, "Spanish population was in favour of a state which was neither centralist nor broken up into independent units"15.
Also, financial structure of Spain created as a result of the regional arrangements has increasingly contributed to a more equal Spain, which was the main goal of the creation of the Autonomous Communities. There are two basic income sources for the regions; tax revenues and grants. Tax revenues represent 25.90% and grants represent 72.80% of the autonomous government income. The main taxes are 'own taxes and fees' on which the autonomous governments have a full decision capacity, 'ceded taxes', that are an ensemble of state taxes and 'individual income tax sharing'. The Autonomous Communities receive 30% of the personal income tax collected in that region.
The most important grants are the unconditional grant (PIE) (21.50% of the autonomous resources), grant for the financing of Health services and Social services (36.10%), Inter-territorial Compensation Fund (ICF) (1.55%)which is a conditioned grant devoted to the financing of investment projects in the poorest regions and European Funds (8.60%).
Furthermore, Autonomous Communities have been promoting stronger ties with the European Union through cooperation as the latter aims to support the development of strong regions assuming that power should be devolved to the level where it is most appropriate to take decisions. The highest level of government is the EU level, and this body has highly developed regional policies and aims to bring about equality by helping those regions, which are relatively poor. Vast majority of the EU budget goes to Spain and the main grant is the European Fund for Regional Development. This has reduced the inter-territorial inequalities across Spain. And this has very significant political consequences too as the regions become more cohesive and more effective governing units.
As a result of these arrangements, there has been a spectacular reduction in income inequalities among regions in recent decades. During the period 1955-1975 the ratio between the per capita GDP of the wealthiest and the poorest regions fell from 3.18 to 2.32, and the variation coefficient (standard deviation divided by the average) from 34.86% to 25.30%. During the 1975-1998 period the reduction in imbalances continued, though at a more moderate rate: the ratio between the per capita GDP of the wealthiest Community and the poorest fell from 2.32 to 2.14 and the variation coefficient from 25.30% to 21.92% (18.29% if we exclude the Balearic Islands, which is a relatively small region with a very high GDP per head). Secondly, the comparison with other European countries shows that Spain is not a country with strong regional imbalances; on the contrary, it has smaller imbalance indexes than most of the other large European countries16.
Next, building civic society increases opportunities for individuals and groups to interact politically with the government to achieve major political changes such as electoral reform or executive power-sharing, contributing to democratic transition and consolidation17. Similarly in Spain, the creation of political autonomous communities requires the reallocation of resources to facilitate discrete policies and regional budget planning encouraging local and regional initiatives including cultural, economic and social projects. These have all added to the dynamism of civil society, generating a sense of common regional identity where it did not previously exist, and strengthening where it has existed as a weak idea18. From local news and cultural organizations to promotion of folklore, regional art, flags and anthems, all factors resulting from the freedom to express cultural identity have reinforced the strengthening of the new sense of regional identity. As is true for the Basque country, Catalan roadsigns, newspapers and radio stations operate in the local language (Catalan is closely related to Castilian Spanish). Also regional businesses restore ancient buildings and create cultural networks such as universities and museums.
Also, despite of the criticisms that the Autonomous Communities make it easier to blame the centre government for flaws at the regional level due to the limited autonomies, the increasing levels of autonomy contributed to the accountability and efficacy of the political system in Spain by bringing about regional level party competition. Therefore, people can have more options by the addition of regional parties, which can present more specific manifestoes than the more general ones by the central parties. By choosing a party at the regional level and electing regional representatives, the voters can reward or punish these parties more easily according to their success in keeping their promises. On the contrary, the central government is generally less accountable as it is not easy to contact the politicians and as their policies are more general and difficult to assess at the regional level. The central parties do not also identify with the regional problems very closely as they are not well-informed.
Another very significant benefit of the creation of Autonomous Communities is that it has created a competition between the different regions, and thus the system evolves into a more equal one on its own dynamic. The reason behind this competition is mainly the demand of more autonomy especially fuelled by the fact that some regions are given more powers over their financial as well as political systems for they either belong to the fast-route group or have Foral regimes which are the Basque Country and Navarre. For instance, through the 1992 Agreements, when "those 'other regions' were given a major boost to their exclusive' powers, the appetites of the historic nationalities for more concessions were whetted"19. Finally, the central government has conceded more control to all the autonomous communities in order to balance decentralization. A good example to this is when the PP conceded control of over %30 per cent of personal income tax to all regions. This demonstrates the success of the creation of Autonomous Communities as the main goal in doing this was homogeneity among the regions in terms of power20.
Consequently, this essay has looked into the benefits of the Creation of Autonomous Communities up against the criticisms made. The conclusion it has come to is that these benefits such as promoting an overall equality and harmonization between the regions, reinforcement of a civic culture, more effective as well as accountable politics, better representation of the Spanish people outnumber its shortcomings. The general trend towards regionalization as clearly seen by the formation of regional groupings such as the European Union, North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA) and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has shown that Spain has been on the right track to be further integrated to the international arena.
The Government and Politics of Spain, Paul Heywood, chp.1
2 The Politics of Modern Europe, Michael Keating, p. 410
3 Spain- Constitution, http://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/law/sp00000_.html
4 Spanish politics today, John Gibbons, p. 36
5 Local Government in Europe: Trends and Developments, Juan Ferrer Mateo, p. 146.
6 Spain: Catalonia and the Basque Country, Guibernau, p.61
7 Spain: developments in regional and local government, Joaquim Solé- Vilanova in Territory and Administration in Europe
8 Spain: Catalonia and the Basque Country, Guibernau, p. 64.
9 Heywood, p. 144.
0 Spain: Catalonia and the Basque Country, Guibernau, p. 61.
1 Heywood, p. 149.
2 Spanish politics today, John Gibbons, p. 28.
3 http://europe.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/basque/stories/overview.html
4Spain: Devolution Provides Lessons for Other Countries by Ben Partridge, http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/1999/02/F.RU.990215153606.html
5Government and Politics of Spain, Paul Heywood, p. 161.
6 The role of intergovernmental finance in achieving diversity
and cohesion: the case of Spain, Antoni Castells, p.3.
7 http://www.caii.net/ghai/toolbox19.htm
8 'Spain: Catalonia and the Basque Country', Guibernau, p. 64.
9 Spanish politics today, John Gibbons, p.29.
20 Politics and Government of Spain, Paul Heywood, p. 146.
