Regional Councils: the Present, and Future Prospects

More than 25 years after they were restored, the regional councils have become consolidated as a part of the Catalan institutional system. Nonetheless, some of the doubts that emerged when they were first created continue to hold currency.

Lacking a clear framework that could set clearly delimited functions, the regional councils were initially established as institutions that sought accommodation in the administrative spaces that were unoccupied by the other branches of the administrative hierarchy. In this way, the comarca became a juxtaposition of elements belonging to the local autonomous bodies and components of a devolved body of the Generalitat (Government of Catalonia). In this article, we reflect on that mix. Our starting point is the data collected through a methodology that allows for an empirical analysis based on the actual deployment of the regional councils.