New Modes of Governance in the Spanish Electricity and Gas Sectors

Abstract

This paper analyses the institutional framework of the Spanish electricity and gas markets from their emergence at the beginning of the twentieth century until the liberalisation process encouraged by the European Union. European processes of liberalisation involving the introduction of regulation and competition and the application of non-hierarchical modes have raised the number of both public and private actors taking part in sectoral governance. However, none of these modes is new for the sector. A historical perspective shows the conditions under which the threat of governmental intervention and the discretion granted to sectoral governance differed significantly between sectors. While the threat to nationalise and monopolise the electricity sector contributed to the creation of a private agent and a model of self-regulation with a large measure of discretion, in the gas sector the public presence was strong and control tight. Thus, the paper concludes that one should not presuppose that old modes of governance are strongly governmental and hierarchical. The opposite proves to be the case in the Spanish electricity sector, where new modes of governance are now more linked to hierarchy.