Social Capital in Educational Policy: Spain

Abstract

In Spain, the structure of policymaking and the underlining constitutional principles changed radically during the second-half of the 1970s with the transition from the Francoist to the democratic regime. Previously, policymaking was strictly a top-dominated procedure (Valverde, 1973; Bardaviso, 1969) with no allocation of power at the sub-national level. After the transition from authoritarianism to democracy, Spain became a political system where significant policymaking powers were allocated to regions and localities (Balfour and Quirosa, 2007; Balfour, 2005; Gibbons, 1999). In a relatively short period, the Spanish system of government went from being characterized by a strong center and weak periphery to one with a weak center and strong periphery.