Rise and Decline of Participatory Instruments at the Local Level: From Normative Assumptions to Policy Outcomes

Strategies of empowerment usually begin at the local level, conceptualizing it as a platform of institutional innovation and policy testing. In this sense, understanding under which conditions participatory instruments are created, maintained or abandoned at the local level can be an excellent starting point. The main idea underlying this paper is that, despite the existence of a strong local political autonomy granted by the Spanish constitution, the scarcity of resources makes for local government difficult to create and maintain deep and stable participatory institutions without the support of upper levels of government. This starting point draws a double scenario where different models can be identified. On the one hand, leaving the regional and provincial government the final decision of promoting or decreasing participation through conditioned grants and funding, we can identify patterns of political control of local participation. On the other hand, political autonomy and local mood (socio-economic) can also be useful indicators for understanding the creation and maintenance of participatory instruments. Therefore, this paper is intended to identify such models and to provide factors (variables) so that a unique explanatory model can be built. The most populated local governments of the metropolitan region of Barcelona (Spain) are the units considered. The data used for presenting models and testing the main hypothesis is taken from the Local Government Observatory, and the specific panel of participation, held by the Fundació Carles Pi i Sunyer (http://www.pisunyer.org), a non-profit organization devoted to gather and analyze data regarding the operation and performance of local institutions. Data are based on three panels (2008: N=217, 2010: N=95, and 2012: N=84). Given the high number and type of variables included —political, institutional, and administrative issues— a rich knowledge about the rise and decline of participation institutions at the local level is presented with a longitudinal perspective.