In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

179 10 Regional Identity and Fiscal Constraints in Spanish Federalism A majority of Catalans want to build a new country.” With 54 percent of the popular vote going to parties that favor independence in the November 2012 elections, that assertion by Artur Mas i Gavarró, the reelected president of Catalonia, is undoubtedly true. Mas added, “The great purpose of a new country is guaranteeing the maximum civic, spiritual, and material well-being of its citizens.”1 Why has the Spanish state not been able to deliver a sense of such wellbeing to Catalans and other regional groups in the 36 years since the passage in 1978 of its democratic constitution—at least not to the extent that it precludes widespread support for the formation of an independent country by Catalonia? The growing regionalist sentiment within Catalonia and other Spanish regions coincides with the increasing instability of the federal framework established by the 1978 constitution. Two major factors are at work: — A heightened sense of regional identity clashes with the current amount and pattern of wealth redistribution by the government. —Spain is unable to continue to pay for an acceptable pattern of regional redistribution by increasing its debt. I argue that the amount and regional pattern of income redistribution in Spain differ from what citizens in key regions of the country prefer. The central and the regional governments have managed potential conflicts over redistribution among regions by issuing debt, which allowed for unaffordable levels of expenditures between 1990 and 2008 and muted political tensions that might otherwise have disrupted national unity. After the 2008 financial crisis, government deficits could no longer be funded and redistribution politics intensified, generating strong separatist sentiments. A system of competitive federalism that minimizes interregional redistribution may be a solution to Spain’s current political crisis because each region would be responsible for its own citizens. carlos xabel lastra-anadón “ 10-0487-4 chap10.indd 179 10/7/13 8:35 PM 180 Carlos Xabel Lastra-Anadón For that system to prevail, however, the European Union (EU) will have to exert strong influence over regional policymaking. The Current Spanish Regional System The 1978 constitution established the“indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation, common and indivisible fatherland [patria] of all Spaniards.” It also created a new set of regional institutions that recognized distinct cultural identities. The government decentralization that has evolved since 1978 resembles a healthy federal system on the outside, but it suffers from a fatal flaw. While the seventeen separate regions in Spain—known as autonomous communities (ACs)— now account for up to one-half of all public spending, most depend heavily on the central government for tax revenues. Moreover, in their largest budget categories, such as health and education, decisions are heavily constrained by a national legislative framework. For instance, up to 65 percent of the contents of school curricula is dictated centrally.2 Centralization of Spain’s government, which took place under General Francisco Franco in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), was motivated in part by regionalist forces that had evolved in the buildup to internal warfare. The political bargaining that produced the democratic 1978 constitution sought to effect a peaceful transition from a heavily centralized system to one with greater scope for autonomous action by lower tiers of government. In its attempt to disassemble Franco’s centralized government, the constitution divided Spain into the seventeen ACs, each with its own elected government and unicameral parliament. AC contours were broadly based on history and on the provincial system under Franco, who had appointed government officers in each of the provinces. The decentralization process that started in 1978 has resulted in a steady increase in the responsibilities of the regional governments , accompanied by the (re)creation of regional identities through promotion within the education system of regional languages, particular readings of history (such as of the conflict between Catalonia and the rest of Spain after the 1701–13 War of the Spanish Succession), and cultural traditions and through language academies, museums, and other public cultural institutions. Public regional television and radio stations, the creation of unofficial “embassies” of regional governments in national capitals across the world and regional delegations to bodies such as the EU, and a myriad of regional programs have added to the preexisting regional distinctions, which have been etched ever more deeply into Spanish political culture. A federalist system is often cast as a bargain among sovereign states that adopt a federal arrangement in order to...

Share