An end to Spain's regional pageant?

It is as though the engine driving the decentralized power system had caught the flu after 30 years in good health, and mechanics were torn between diagnosing its condition as "worrisome," "serious" or "critical." Overnight, the economic crisis has put a stop to the brisk competition for more self-government among Spain's 17 semi-autonomous regions: where they all used to demand more devolved powers from Madrid, now they would be mighty grateful if the central state would be so kind as to free them of the responsibilities that weigh like a ton on their depleted coffers.

The time is over for the pageantry, the lavish expenses, the empty regional airports and all those other magnificent, expensive projects of the past. "We can't make ends meet!" is the cry that can be heard from all points of the country, although there are precious few admissions of responsibility for the mess - rather, the general feeling seems to be that the fault lies somewhere outside regional borders.

"Institutional dignity has been confused with magnificence and luxury"

Fear of financial collapse is bringing back a term that had been dead and buried for years. "Recentralize" has become voguish, yet it would pay to know whether a centralized system would really be cheaper and more efficient, as claimed by those who believe that Spain's decentralized system constitutes an expense that the country can no longer afford.

To everyone's amazement, Madrid's regional premier, Esperanza Aguirre of the center-right Popular Party (PP), recently announced her plans to return power over justice affairs to the central government, while adding that she would not mind doing without a few other departments as well, including culture, infrastructure, environmental, and economic affairs. Constitutional scholars are throwing their hands up in despair. To return powers? The Constitution and the regional charters (Estatutos) do not countenance such a possibility. You simply do not take back what you've given, just as you don't return what you have accepted. For that, there would have to be an agreement with the state, a reform of the charters... and ultimately, would that not be a contradiction that distorts the very nature of the system?

But the Madrid premier is not alone on this. She is merely the spearhead of a movement that is shared by the regional governments of Murcia, Valencia and Castilla-La Mancha, all of which are ruled by the PP, traditionally in favor of a stronger central government. These regions are angry because Spain's self-imposed austerity measures include forcing the autonomías to respect spending limits, and the state credit agency will only cover half their debt. But this begs the question of whether this regional revolt is for real, or whether the challenge will die down once the PP wrests La Moncloa, the seat of Spain's government, from the Socialists.

Be that as it may, for a long time now there has been growing discontent and disaffection with regard to this decentralized system, and this has made people forget the fact that decentralization was widely viewed as beneficial when it was created following the advent of democracy after Franco's death in 1975.

"In a short space of time, the state of the autonomías has gone from being considered a perfect system that allows to bring [mostly Basque, Catalan, Valencian and Galician] nationalists into the fold, to being seen as inefficient on the economic front and useless to address nationalist problems," says José Tudela, professor of administrative law at Zaragoza University. It seems clear that it is no longer just the extreme right that rejects the decentralized system, but that this rejection has extended to people who favor greater efficiency and show concern for equality and fairness among the regions. News stories about nationalist indoctrination or about Spanish-speakers who are marginalized in regions ruled by Basque or Catalan nationalists join other stories attributing poor student results to regional control over education, or pointing out the nuisance of having to deal with a ton of different regulations for the same issue. The 17 different hunting permits or the variety of laws regarding the length of the horns on a fighting bull illustrate a legal diversity that is often perceived as unnecessary and capricious.

If we add to this corruption scandals such as the Gürtel case or collapsed savings banks controlled by regional politicians, one gets a sense of the extent of the disillusionment. Some scholars now recall how politicians from other countries would exclaim in admiration over the lavishness of the buildings that housed Spain's regional parliaments and agencies. "Often, institutional dignity has been confused with magnificence and luxury," admits Alberto López Basaguren, a professor of constitutional law at the Basque Country University.

Yet there are no scientific studies proving that state-run management is in and of itself more efficient and economical. Comparative studies with Italy show that Spain has managed to somewhat reduce income inequalities among the regions, and fostered growth in all of them. "Germany has 16 länder for a population of over 90 million, and Spain has 17 autonomous regions for half that many inhabitants," notes Tudela. Perhaps the time has come to open a calm debate over a model that Basaguren defines as "undercover federalism."