Multilevel Governance in Spain post-crisis: centralization or more coordination of social policies?

Abstract

The article analyzes the multilevel governance of education, health and social assistance policies in Spain. More specifically, the objective is to verify whether the new autonomic financing system (Law nº. 22/2009) and the change in the decision-making process within the Sectorial Conferences (Royal Decree-Law nº. 40/2015), both introduced under the effects of the economic crisis of 2008, represented a trend towards centralization or an attempt to improve national coordination in the field of social policies. The methodology covers an institutional assessment of intergovernmental relations, an analysis of the revenue available to the Autonomous Communities and horizontal inequalities, measured by the Gini Coefficient, in the period 2006 to 2018, in addition to conducting semi-structured interviews with public managers who work in technical committees of the Sector Conferences. The results refute fiscal centralization or significant expansion of the regulatory capacity of the State (central government), which remained based on “negotiation” rather than “federal regulation”.