L'impacte de la crisi econòmica global en el sistema de descentralització política a Espanya

This article has a double objective for analysis: the impact of the economic crisis and measures adopted to cope with it within the current system of political decentralisation in Spain, and conversely, the impact of that decentralisation on the economic crisis and on the effectiveness of the measures adopted. The article is divided into two parts. In the first part there is a very brief presentation of the data of the economic crisis and its economic, social, political and legal repercussions as well as the impact of the State on the autonomous regions in terms of the characteristics of the Spanish economic crisis. The second part follows the same system in relation to the measures adopted: they are described and their effects on the system of political decentralisation are shown as well as the impact of that system on the efficiency and effectiveness of those measures. The article concludes by affirming that, for the moment, the crisis has had a moderate impact with respect to political decentralisation and that the system of decentralisation has played an essentially neutral role in relation to the crisis and the measures adopted to cope with it. The fact that since before the crisis the State was already enjoying a clear position of pre-eminence with respect to the Autonomous Communities, is used to explain this double phenomenon, and most especially in relation to economic policy. Also, the fact that the system of distribution of powers is highly deconstitutionalised in Spain, in the sense that its precision is largely freely regulated by central State government bodies must also be taken into account. For these two reasons, the State has not had to introduce reforms or changes to the system when adopting the measures it considered necessary in order to cope with the economic crisis.