Correction of excesses
Spending cuts and an end to duplication doesn’t mean giving in to radical centralism or secessionism
The restructuring of public finances demands that the excesses that have been committed at various levels of government, not only in the regions, are brought to an end. These urgent tasks must be differentiated from two fanaticisms: the hardline centralism that demands the reduction of regional government powers to a minimum, and the secessionism that exacerbates tensions. The devolution of an array of powers to the regions has been a reasonably successful formula, and no good would come of a sudden re-concentration of roles in a swollen, monolithic central state, which might be even more difficult to manage and optimize.
But nor can we eternally postpone the job of rationalizing the powers and services of the different levels of government. Regional structures now account for rather more than a third of total public spending; a wholesale retreat from them would shake the foundations of public administration. Nor is it possible to offer the public the choice of paying for the welfare state or paying for the regional governments, as if they were unconnected. This dichotomy is false. Essential public services are supplied at the regional level, so that to propose a substantial reduction in spending on education or healthcare amounts to questioning these services, or taking a sharp swerve toward their privatization.
Meanwhile, the present economic emergency calls for urgent corrections. A large sector of society would like to see a reduction in the political apparatus of the regional governments, particularly in the staff of public companies. The demand includes a cutback in the size of the regional parliaments — a desirable move, where it does not conceal a ruse to reduce or suppress political pluralism. The emergency also calls for reconsideration of the need for provincial councils, the huge number of municipal governments, and of councilors within them. A medium-sized country such as ours doesn't need four levels of administration (state, region, province, municipality), especially when they duplicate services. To reduce the number of public employees by 20 percent by 2020 would be a goal attainable without traumatic measures, aside from those already underway.
Whatever the resulting map may be, the key is to ensure serious and professionalized supervision of public spending — in the central state, of course, but also in the regions and municipalities. The unending litany of hidden deficits, non-payments, and attributions of outsize salaries to consultants or officials, aggravate the growing public distrust of the political class, and the populist temptation to demean it.
Nor can secessionist tensions be justified. To add this source of instability to the crisis does not help to solve the above-mentioned problems, while it does tend to widen the gulf of misunderstanding. The complaints from Catalonia must be analyzed together with the rest. It has to be possible to address the emergencies, and to coolly reconsider the Catalan question within a future constitutional reform. Such a reconsideration would be the opportunity for a new look at the function of the Senate, which was declared a "territorial" Chamber in the 1978 Constitution, but which has never played that role, or discussed regional accounts or programs.
In any case, no lasting project can be carried out without consensus and loyalty between the two major parties. Nor would consensus between the Spain-wide parties be sufficient to such an end: respect for the spirit in which the Constitution was written also demands the participation of the major regional nationalist parties.
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