Part III - Transforming competitive regionalism: Institutional adaptation to Europeanization in Spain

Summary

Part III of this book explores the effect of Europeanization on Spanish territorial institutions. Chapter 7 outlines the major formal and informal institutions. I argue that the institutional culture of competitive regionalism has shaped the way in which the Comunidades Autónomas (CCAA) respond to challenges to their political and institutional autonomy. In order to protect their sphere of autonomy against harmonization and centralization, the Comunidades Autónomas have developed a two-fold strategy of constitutional conflict and non-cooperation vis-à-vis the central state.

Chapter 8 starts by showing that Europeanization has posed a similar challenge to Spanish territorial institutions to the one posed in Germany. As in case of the Länder, Europeanization has challenged the institutional autonomy of the Comunidades Autónomas by causing an uneven distribution of “say and pay” in favor of the central state (1). I demonstrate how the institutional culture of competitive regionalism has encouraged the CCAA to pursue a strategy of confrontation against and circumventing of the state (2). I argue that this non-cooperative strategy has hindered a redressing of the territorial balance of power. Facing increasing costs of Europeanization, the CCAA started to reconsider their initial strategy and to adopt a more cooperative approach (3). This strategy change by the CCAA brought about the first institutional framework of multilateral cooperation in Spanish intergovernmental relations that provides for regional participation in central-state policy-making. The introduction of joint decision-making in Spanish competitive regionalism constitutes a major change in the territorial institutions of Spain (4).