Abstract
One of the key political decisions taken by the 1978 Constituent Assembly was to opt for political decentralization of power. Few people question that the basic reason for adopting such a decision was to seek a response to the peripheral nationalisms of Catalonia, the Basque Country and, to a lesser extent, Galicia. At the same time, the advantages of decentralization for revitalizing inland Spain and the consequent empowerment of the citizens were placed on the table. Whatever the case, what clearly emerges from both the constituent debate and the actual wording of the Constitution is that the underlying aim of decentralization was to satisfy the nationalist pretensions of the above territories and, thus, resolve one of the secular problems of our history, a debate that should be understood within the historical framework where it took place.
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- 1.
In this respect, for all of the problems, see: García De Enterría, pp. 453–455. In the same pages, the author underlines how, in view of the debate that this subject caused in the Constituent Parliament of 1931, the decision to decentralize the state, in a more pronounced way than in 1931, was taken by consensus and absent of all drama.
- 2.
- 3.
The book Diálogo sobre las Españas is significant. Therein, Bosch Gimpera defends the need to distinguish the Spain of Castile in order to conceive of Spain “as the harmonic whole in which everybody can live fraternally without losing anything or acquiring impositions” (Bosch Gimpera 1960, p. 30). For his part, in 1962 Fernando Valera published a brief treatise championing the federal republic as the best regime for Spain (Valera 1962).
- 4.
In this respect, see: Julia, pp. 22 and 23, Fundación Pablo Iglesias.
- 5.
This state is comparable to a federal state. From abroad, Ronald Watts, among others, had already reinforced this view in a past stage of the autonomous state: Watts (1999), pp. 129–13: a view that the author himself has ratified in a recent work: Watts (2009). If we look at the figures, the conclusion offers no doubt: at present, the Autonomous Communities manage 36 % of total non-financial spending; 24 % of non-financial income; 41 % of state public investment; 54 % of public workers. Moreover, 72 % of regional spending is social expenditure. Finally, 1,967 transfers of powers from the state to the Autonomous Communities took place between 1978 and 2011 (Source: López Laborda 2011).
- 6.
This feeling is constantly reflected in regional opinion polls conducted by CIS (Sociological Research Centre), although a certain deterioration in identification with the Autonomous State is apparent. In the opinion poll for July 2010, carried out between January and March of that year, 47.9 % were of the opinion that the creation of the Autonomous State had been positive for Spain, while 26.4 % had a negative point of view.
- 7.
Regarding the so-called Ibarretxe Plan, see: Solozábal Echavarría (2006), p. 107 onwards.
- 8.
For a view of the commentaries that the 31/2010 Sentence has merited in Catalan legal doctrine, the monographic studies can be consulted that the Catalan Journal “Dret Públic” (December 2010, Special) and the Revista d’Estudis Autonòmics y Federals (n° 12, March 2011) have devoted to this subject.
- 9.
In this way, the foreseeable emulation was broken. In this regard, see: VV.AA, Encuesta sobre el Estado autonómico, Teoría y Realidad Constitucional n° 24, pp. 11–108. With respect to the significance of the break with the idea of emulation, see: Tudela Aranda (2010).
- 10.
- 11.
In this regard, see: García Roca, pp. 92 and 93.
- 12.
These reforms, which included transferring power over health to the Autonomous Communities involved, led to homogenization of competences.
- 13.
- 14.
- 15.
Discontent with the original path to autonomy and the consequent levels of self-government was a constant feature of Aragon society. Regarding the ups and downs of the process of creating the Aragon Autonomous Community, see: Garrido López (1999).
- 16.
With regard to reform of the Extremadura Statute of Autonomy, see: Solozábal Echavarría (2011).
- 17.
In this regard, see: Tudela Aranda (2010).
- 18.
See, Ortega Álvarez, ¿Estado federal, integral o autonómico? in España y modelos de federalismo, pp. 96–97, ob cit.
- 19.
We cannot overlook the fact that the origin of these questions corresponded, as in 1978, to the desire of the peripheral nationalisms for more self-government, in this specific case, Catalonia.
- 20.
The most significant political expression of this movement is the emergence of the Union for Progress and Democracy Party, one of whose fundamental proposals is the strengthening of the central state in areas such as health and education. This party has carried out the work: El coste del Estado autonómico, Grupo de Administración Pública de UPyD, 2010. Vid, J. L. Barbería, ¿Y si pensamos, racionalizamos el Estado de las autonomías? El País, 27th October 2011.
- 21.
- 22.
The “quality” in the meaning of this expression was essentially projected onto the way of exercising the competences (Viver I Pi-Sunyer 2008, pp. 140–146).
- 23.
Professor Muñoz Machado was the first to perceive this identification (Muñoz Machado, El mito del Estatuto Constitución en La reforma del Estado autonómico, pp. 65–84, ob. cit).
- 24.
With respect to the Bill for the Catalan Autonomous Statute passed by the Catalan Parliament, see: Solozábal Echavarría (2006), pp. 27–56, ob. cit.; Corretja Torrens, La reforma del Estatuto de Autonomía de Cataluña en la reforma del Estado autonómico, pp. 11–128, ob. cit.
- 25.
A joint editorial published by twelve Catalan newspapers on 26th November 2009.
- 26.
In this respect, the meaning of the last chapter of the monograph that the Catalan journal of dret públic (public law) devoted to the sentence is significant. It also includes a reflection concerning the securing of an independent state (López Boffill 2010, pp. 479–487).
- 27.
In the doctrine, the maximum exponent of this thesis was Professor Pérez Royo (Pérez Royo, La última palabra, EL PAÍS, 4th September).
- 28.
In this respect, see: La Vanguardia, 11th and 12th September 2011.
- 29.
The State Council Report devotes a number of pages to the dispositive principle, highlighting how its initial nature as a principle guiding the creation of the autonomous state was in some way transformed, when the “reforming” nature thereof became a unilateral force driving the autonomous communities (pages 136 and following). On the same topic, see: Fossas (2008), pp. 71–72; García Roca, El riesgo de la generalización de asimetrías en las reformas estatutarias y los límites al principio dispositivo, work cited.
- 30.
Underscoring the profound decentralization as an undeniable success of the autonomous communities, see: Solozábal Echavarría, Falsas y verdaderas reformas del Estado autonómico en Tiempo de reformas, cited work, pp. 28 and 29.
- 31.
Indeed, it is often posited that the problems these countries suffer reflect how bad asymmetric federalism is as a solution, whereas in fact, quite the contrary is true. What we should instead be thinking is what would have happened if the flexibility of federalism had not been able to provide an escape valve for the particularities existing therein.
- 32.
This of course in no way means that the whole of Catalonian society identifies with the opinions expressed by one, however high-profile, sector of the nationalist political elite. Catalonian society is, like all others and is evidenced in the election results, also complex and multi-faceted in this regard.
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Aranda, J.T. (2013). Autonomous State Reform in the Face of Challenges from Regulation and Integration. 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/10.1007/978-3-642-27720-7_35
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