Democratic Development and Local Governments Consolidation in Spain

Abstract

The article highlights the problems and peculiarities of territorial structure of Spain, analyzes the specific nature of regional and local governments. In the focus of attention is the legal status of autonomous communities. It is analyzed on the basis of case study of asymmetric decentralized model. The author considers the features of democratic development and consolidation of local administration in Spain, identifies the key periods of the consolidation process of local governments, examines the financial resources of local government. The emphasis is laid on the opinion according to which Spain is an example of a highly centralized state. The author draws the conclusion that Spain was able to implement decentralization successfully because the control from the center is perceived in this country as the norm, and people strongly believe that this kind of administration is the only rational form of government allowind to implement decentralization successfully. Spain has chosen such a model of decentralization, in which the degree of self- governing is determined by the regions, but not arbitrarily imposed on them from above. The communities which wanted a higher level of self-government for specific social, cultural and geographical reasons, have managed to get it. However, regions that were not aspired to self-governance were free to gain a lower degree of autonomy. Asymmetric model allowed Spain to cope with this specific problem, namely, to combine in a single legal system regions with strong ethno-national traditions and history of prior recognition of their aspirations for autonomy, on the one hand, and conventional areas, where such traditions were not crucial, on the other.