'Presidentialising Parliamentarism'? Institutional Constraints on Coalition Building at Local Level in Catalonia, 1979-2015

Most part of the research in coalition politics around the world is been made regarding the national level. While some scholars focus on subnational level (i.e. Downs; Stefiuruc; Reniu et al.), few of them approach to the study of coalition politics at local level (i.e. Bäck). In this sense, even fewer scholars focus on analyzing the local level in Spain (i.e. Font; MartínezFarrero). The Spanish local level provides an excellent opportunity to analyze the effects of some institutional features that -in a parliamentarian context- reinforces the Mayor characterizing him in a presidential style. The paper analyzes the characteristics of coalition governments in the municipalities of more than 10K inhabitants in Catalonia since 1979, with the aim to approach in depth the effects of this institutional framework.