Local Governance in Spain

The book addresses in detail local governance in Spain. In recent decades, localgovernments in Europe have increasingly found themselves under pressure from a multitude of new challenges, such asdemographic change, climate change, fiscal austerity policies, digitization, the demand for more citizen participation inlocal affairs, and the migration crisis in some of them, to name just a few. Consequently, a wave of political andadministrative reforms to address these challenges, pressures and problems, has changed local governance in manycountries. In part, these changes were the result of reform policies introduced by national and state governments, oftentriggered by austerity policies, which has become an overwhelming reality for Spanish local governments that have beenforced to introduce innovations in local governance. This book aims to give an account of these innovations in localgovernance in Spain. This book considers the local political-administrative structure in its dimensions, focusing on the analysis of its party system, electoral competition and political behavior in the local arena, as well as on local finances, all of which aredetermining elements in urban and rural governance processes. On the occasion of the recent crisis unleashed by Covid-19, the book will also deal with local governance in crisis situations. The book will alsocontextualize local governance processes in Spain in relation to the trends in localgovernance observed in other European countries.