Abstract
This paper contributes to the literature on parliamentary government and intergovernmental relations by introducing a territorial logic of national minority governance in multilevel states. Spain has 17 powerful regional governments and several regional parties that gain representation at the national and regional levels. The paper evaluates the hypothesis that the governing situation of a regional party at the regional level, specifically the type of governing cabinet to which it belongs or whether it is in opposition, affects its support for a national minority government. Using qualitative interviews and a dataset of national parliamentary alliances in the Spanish Congress during the minority government of Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (2008–2011), it finds support for the proposition that regional governing dynamics affect national minority governance; in particular, regional parties governing in minority at the regional level are the regional parties most likely to support a national minority government.
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- 1.
A minority government comprises ministers from one or more political parties, and the governing party’s or parties’ parliamentarians hold less than an absolute majority of seats.
- 2.
UPN presented candidates jointly in Navarre with the PP and the two deputies elected on the joint list joined the PP parliamentary group. However, in November 2008 a UPN deputy abandoned the PP parliamentary group and joined the mixed group, which is an amalgam of parties individually too small to form a group according to the parliamentary rules. Subsequently, in May 2011, the UPN gained an additional parliamentary seat as a replacement for a deputy from Navarre. She also joined the mixed group. Therefore this study analyzes the voting behavior of the UPN deputies from the date they joined the mixed group.
- 3.
Prime Minister Zapatero announced parliamentary elections for November 20, 2011. Thirteen regional elections took place on May 22, 2011; however, no new governments had been formed by May 31.
- 4.
PSC–PSOE emerged out a fusion of various socialist parties, including the PSOE, during the Spanish transition. PSC is formally an independently registered party federated with the PSOE. There is no separate Catalan branch of the PSOE.
- 5.
Interview with the author, 2011.
- 6.
Interview with the author, 2011.
- 7.
Interview with the author, 2011.
- 8.
Interview with the author, 2010.
- 9.
Personal interviews with Joan Ridao (ERC, 2009), Joan Tardá (ERC, 2010), Josep Lluis Carod Rovira (ERC 2011), and Joan Saura (ICV, 2011).
- 10.
According to the PSC website, “The PSC…is a sovereign party federated with the PSOE, and this makes it unique in the Spanish socialist context because, even though it participates in the federal organs [of the PSOE], it has its own legal identity, independent finances and it maintains total autonomy of action within the framework of Catalan politics” (Partido de los Socialistas de Catalunya 2011). Translated by the author.
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Acknowledgements
The author gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Gobierno de España (CSO2010-16337) and the Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain’s Ministry of Culture and United States Universities. The author thanks Kristin Anderson, Paige Roland, Teresa Sieiro, Maria Skaletsky, Lourdes Solana, Bayer Tumennasan and Steve Wuhs for their research assistance and advice; and the numerous politicians who generously agreed to be interviewed for this project.
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Field, B.N. (2013). Decentralization, Regional Parties, and Multilevel Governance in Spain. In: López - Basaguren, A., Escajedo San Epifanio, L. (eds) The Ways of Federalism in Western Countries and the Horizons of Territorial Autonomy in Spain. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27717-7_56
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27717-7_56
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