Divergences on the Spanish Decentralization Process: Institutional Design, Public Opinion and Public Policies

Due to the economic crisis, held from 2008 on, the different federal and decentralized systems had been rearranging themselves, in order to provide a better and more efficient way of working. In this sense, this paper analyzes the political elements that affect the (de)centralization of the political system. Moreover, focusing them on the changes that the system has held due to this finance recession. In this very sense, during the last four decades, the Spanish case has been going through different moments on the (de)centralization process, and so have gone their regional identities. This research, according to the rational choice institutionalism assumes that territorial power share of a state is inherently unstable and very dependable on the political context. Therefore, the study of the four most important regions in Spain (those that acquired the autonomy in a faster way or have their national identity represented by a political party -Catalonia, Galicia, Basque Country, Canary Islands and Andalusia-). In this sense, these contextual situations held for the last years, may have affected in the coordination and the degree of the decentralization in those regional political systems. In this very same line, some research considered these elements as safeguards that ensure no separation or no complete centralization, joining equilibrium theory. According to this previous statements, this research aims at identifying what elements made mutate the Spanish territorial power distribution since the adoption of the constitution in 1978, focusing on: the electorate (public opinion and electoral behavior), the evolution of public income and expenditure (in areas such as education, health or language), and the evolution of support in those regions.