Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
7
Endogenous Decentralization and Welfare Resilience
Spain, 1978-2007
The analysis of the German experience in
Chapter 6
illustrated how centripetal
representation works to contain the decentralizing push emerging from post-
Unification economic geography. This chapter analyzes the interplay between
economic geography and political representation in a rather different context,
the process of fiscal and political decentralization that has taken place in Spain
since the early 1980s. The chapter serves two purposes, one theoretical and
one empirical. Theoretically, the chapter contributes to the study of how status
quo conditions, in terms of political representation, shape subsequent political
processes where distributive tensions emerge endogenously. By focusing on a
case in which the original arrangements were purposefully centripetal, it offers
a contrast to that of the European Union, and helps cover the range of possible
initial conditions.
Empirically, this chapter addresses the puzzle of the coexistence over time of
two processes that, according to the preeminent theoretical views, one would
expect to be at odds: the expansion of the welfare state;
and
a fast paced
process of political and, partially, fiscal decentralization. The key to this joint
development lies in the resilience of core components of the interpersonal
redistribution system (mostly on the expenditure side) when virtually all other
policies, including healthcare, education, and, more recently important aspects
of the revenue collection system have been decentralized. In this chapter I show
that it is the interplay between the system of representation, asymmetric fiscal
arrangements embedded in the original constitutional contract, and economic
geography that explain this puzzle.
An uneven economic geography, coupled with a centralized fiscal structure,
generates largely uneven patterns of costs and benefits allocation across regions.
On this basis, a centripetal system of representation privileges politically the
winners in the status quo, who are able to resist a proposal to fully decentralize
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