This expert-led review of policy analysis in Spain is the first systematic study to provide a com... more This expert-led review of policy analysis in Spain is the first systematic study to provide a comprehensive overview of how policy actors generate information for the policy-making process.
Local Public Services in Times of Austerity across Mediterranean Europe, 2019
In the context of the severe crisis that Europe has faced in recent years, the countries of South... more In the context of the severe crisis that Europe has faced in recent years, the countries of Southern Europe have been hit hardest by policies of austerity. These policies have taken on different guises depending on each country’s specific problems and strategies. The Spanish case is illustrative of the targeting of local authorities by central government to ensure a reduction in public spending. Under the watchwords of “financial sustainability” and “rationalisation”, a wide range of actions were implemented. Some meant a loss of local autonomy, as municipal entities underwent restructuring and service provisions were reformed. However, several years after the reforms were adopted, a current evaluation shows that local governments resisted many of these top-down actions, exhibiting a high degree of institutional resilience. This chapter analyses the variety of measures adopted, taking a twofold perspective: on the one hand, it examines the specific characteristics of the Spanish government’s austerity agenda, while, on the other, it documents carefully the reaction of local government authorities.
This chapter explores the main features of the Spanish local system and the implications of a fra... more This chapter explores the main features of the Spanish local system and the implications of a fragmented and unbalanced municipal map composed by few a wide number of small villages and a few big cities. Despite the enormous differences between these two worlds, big and small municipalities, the regulation governing their functioning is relatively uniform. It diversifies some aspects by population thresholds, but these different regulations do not always suit municipalities’ realities and needs. The chapter analyses the dimensions affected: the electoral system, tasks and functions, institutional organisation and financial system and aspires at highlighting the main complexities and also the mechanisms of the resilient municipal system to adapt to this rigid architecture.
This chapter focuses on policy analysis and policy capacity of local governments in Canada. It di... more This chapter focuses on policy analysis and policy capacity of local governments in Canada. It discusses the nature of local public policy issues, the dynamics of local policy-making, the demand for policy analysis in local government and the specific analytical techniques used by local policy workers. Drawing on content analysis of relevant documents and interviews with municipal policy workers, the chapter presents new evidence about policy analysis at the local level, which has traditionally received less research attention than policy work at the federal and provincial levels.
Los gobiernos locales de España han implementado normativas diversas, nacionales y autonómicas, d... more Los gobiernos locales de España han implementado normativas diversas, nacionales y autonómicas, de transparencia en los últimos años. Todo el acervo normativo aprobado establecía principios e imponía obligaciones de índole muy diversa al conjunto de entes públicos, entre ellos los más de 8.000 ayuntamientos. Este trabajo se interesa por el proceso de implementación de la(s) normativa(s) de transparencia en los gobiernos locales españoles de mayor población. Concretamente, se plantea hasta qué punto esta normativa ha impulsado el cambio organizacional e institucional en los entes locales y el nivel de desempeño en términos de publicidad activa. Mediante un cuestionario específico dirigido a los municipios de mayor población y el análisis de las páginas web de los ayuntamientos, obtenemos información sobre el proceso y el nivel de implementación efectiva. En este artículo discutimos sobre dos factores determinantes para comprender el proceso de implementación: la existencia de path de...
This working paper presents the findings of quantitave and qualititave research into populist com... more This working paper presents the findings of quantitave and qualititave research into populist communication on Facebook. Specifically, we look at how populist politicians from all across Europe used Facebook in their campaigns for the European Parliamentary elections in May 2019 and compared this with a posts from July 2019. We start the paper with sections on research design and then outline the importance of social media for populist political communication. From here, we present the findings of our comparative research. We found that the use of Facebook varied widely around the bloc. Some countries – Spain, Italy, the UK, France, and Poland – display a more widespread use of social media and with more complex usage, whilst others, such as Lithuania, have a low usage level. As a result, we maintain that there is no, one online populist strategy currently in use. Instead, the frequency, tone and topic of social media usage by populist actors differs from country to country, actor t...
Despite the growing interest in transparency policies and, concomitantly, the need to include a g... more Despite the growing interest in transparency policies and, concomitantly, the need to include a gender perspective in analysing the actions of public authorities, the intersection of both fields has attracted limited attention from the research community. The scarce contributions to this topic do not provide a framework that supports an empirical examination of institutional transparency and gender, and therefore, the implementation of these policies remains unexplored. This paper contributes to the debate on institutional transparency and gender perspective by developing an index of gender inclusion in transparency policies based on the information available on official local government websites, and by identifying and analysing factors that drive variations in the municipal councils. The research focuses on the municipalities of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (MAB) and includes other cities for comparative purposes. The findings indicate that the number of inhabitants of the m...
In the context of the severe crisis that Europe has faced in recent years, the countries of South... more In the context of the severe crisis that Europe has faced in recent years, the countries of Southern Europe have been hit hardest by policies of austerity. These policies have taken on different guises depending on each country’s specific problems and strategies. The Spanish case is illustrative of the targeting of local authorities by central government to ensure a reduction in public spending. Under the watchwords of “financial sustainability” and “rationalisation”, a wide range of actions were implemented. Some meant a loss of local autonomy, as municipal entities underwent restructuring and service provisions were reformed. However, several years after the reforms were adopted, a current evaluation shows that local governments resisted many of these top-down actions, exhibiting a high degree of institutional resilience. This chapter analyses the variety of measures adopted, taking a twofold perspective: on the one hand, it examines the specific characteristics of the Spanish gov...
Populism is the “40 is the new 30” of political research, buzzing for the last two decades with w... more Populism is the “40 is the new 30” of political research, buzzing for the last two decades with what seems as an unfading energy. A lot of attention has been paid to defining the phenomena and outlining its general features. Significantly less notice has been paid to political parties. Even less work has been done on comparative party populism in contemporary Europe, one that would take into consideration social, political and historical aspects. This paper fills this void. Examining sixteen European populist parties and movements across the continent, we argue that while all adhere to the standard populist framework, there is not one but four populisms in contemporary Europe. We demonstrate our argument by positioning the case selection against the following dichotomies: exclusionary v. inclusionary populism, authoritarian v. non-authoritarian populism, strong nativist v. weak nativist populism, and radical democratic v. conspiratorial populism. Based on these variables, we introdu...
Gestión y Análisis de Políticas Públicas – GAPP, Nov 24, 2021
Los gobiernos locales de España han implementado normativas diversas, nacionales y autonómicas, d... more Los gobiernos locales de España han implementado normativas diversas, nacionales y autonómicas, de transparencia en los últimos años. Todo el acervo normativo aprobado establecía principios e imponía obligaciones de índole muy diversa al conjunto de entes públicos, entre ellos los más de 8.000 ayuntamientos. Este trabajo se interesa por el proceso de implementación de la(s) normativa(s) de transparencia en los gobiernos locales españoles de mayor población. Concretamente, se plantea hasta qué punto esta normativa ha impulsado el cambio organizacional e institucional en los entes locales y el nivel de desempeño en términos de publicidad activa. Mediante un cuestionario específico dirigido a los municipios de mayor población y el análisis de las páginas web de los ayuntamientos, obtenemos información sobre el proceso y el nivel de implementación efectiva. En este artículo discutimos sobre dos factores determinantes para comprender el proceso de implementación: la existencia de path de...
Authors: Samuel Bennett, Artur Lipiński, Agnieszka Stępińska, David Abadi, Thomas Gammeltoft-Hans... more Authors: Samuel Bennett, Artur Lipiński, Agnieszka Stępińska, David Abadi, Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, Nicolas Hubé, Martin Baloge, Giuliano Bobba, Eglė Butkevičienė, Charlotte Brands, Agneta H Fischer, Bogdan Ianosev, Lena Karamanidou, Sune Klinge, Jiří Kocián, Umut Korkut, Jaume Magre, Moreno Mancosu, Adina Marincea, Dejan Matić, Luis Medir, Vaidas Morkevičius, Esther Pano, Franca Roncarolo, Osman Sahin, Antonella Seddone, Andrej Školkay, Gabriella Szabó, Emmanouil Tsatsanis, Giedrius Žvaliauskas This working paper presents the findings of quantitave and qualititave research into populist communication on Facebook. Specifically, we look at how populist politicians from all across Europe used Facebook in their campaigns for the European Parliamentary elections in May 2019 and compared this with a posts from July 2019. We start the paper with sections on research design and then outline the importance of social media for populist political communication. From here, we present the find...
This expert-led review of policy analysis in Spain is the first systematic study to provide a com... more This expert-led review of policy analysis in Spain is the first systematic study to provide a comprehensive overview of how policy actors generate information for the policy-making process.
Local Public Services in Times of Austerity across Mediterranean Europe, 2019
In the context of the severe crisis that Europe has faced in recent years, the countries of South... more In the context of the severe crisis that Europe has faced in recent years, the countries of Southern Europe have been hit hardest by policies of austerity. These policies have taken on different guises depending on each country’s specific problems and strategies. The Spanish case is illustrative of the targeting of local authorities by central government to ensure a reduction in public spending. Under the watchwords of “financial sustainability” and “rationalisation”, a wide range of actions were implemented. Some meant a loss of local autonomy, as municipal entities underwent restructuring and service provisions were reformed. However, several years after the reforms were adopted, a current evaluation shows that local governments resisted many of these top-down actions, exhibiting a high degree of institutional resilience. This chapter analyses the variety of measures adopted, taking a twofold perspective: on the one hand, it examines the specific characteristics of the Spanish government’s austerity agenda, while, on the other, it documents carefully the reaction of local government authorities.
This chapter explores the main features of the Spanish local system and the implications of a fra... more This chapter explores the main features of the Spanish local system and the implications of a fragmented and unbalanced municipal map composed by few a wide number of small villages and a few big cities. Despite the enormous differences between these two worlds, big and small municipalities, the regulation governing their functioning is relatively uniform. It diversifies some aspects by population thresholds, but these different regulations do not always suit municipalities’ realities and needs. The chapter analyses the dimensions affected: the electoral system, tasks and functions, institutional organisation and financial system and aspires at highlighting the main complexities and also the mechanisms of the resilient municipal system to adapt to this rigid architecture.
This chapter focuses on policy analysis and policy capacity of local governments in Canada. It di... more This chapter focuses on policy analysis and policy capacity of local governments in Canada. It discusses the nature of local public policy issues, the dynamics of local policy-making, the demand for policy analysis in local government and the specific analytical techniques used by local policy workers. Drawing on content analysis of relevant documents and interviews with municipal policy workers, the chapter presents new evidence about policy analysis at the local level, which has traditionally received less research attention than policy work at the federal and provincial levels.
Los gobiernos locales de España han implementado normativas diversas, nacionales y autonómicas, d... more Los gobiernos locales de España han implementado normativas diversas, nacionales y autonómicas, de transparencia en los últimos años. Todo el acervo normativo aprobado establecía principios e imponía obligaciones de índole muy diversa al conjunto de entes públicos, entre ellos los más de 8.000 ayuntamientos. Este trabajo se interesa por el proceso de implementación de la(s) normativa(s) de transparencia en los gobiernos locales españoles de mayor población. Concretamente, se plantea hasta qué punto esta normativa ha impulsado el cambio organizacional e institucional en los entes locales y el nivel de desempeño en términos de publicidad activa. Mediante un cuestionario específico dirigido a los municipios de mayor población y el análisis de las páginas web de los ayuntamientos, obtenemos información sobre el proceso y el nivel de implementación efectiva. En este artículo discutimos sobre dos factores determinantes para comprender el proceso de implementación: la existencia de path de...
This working paper presents the findings of quantitave and qualititave research into populist com... more This working paper presents the findings of quantitave and qualititave research into populist communication on Facebook. Specifically, we look at how populist politicians from all across Europe used Facebook in their campaigns for the European Parliamentary elections in May 2019 and compared this with a posts from July 2019. We start the paper with sections on research design and then outline the importance of social media for populist political communication. From here, we present the findings of our comparative research. We found that the use of Facebook varied widely around the bloc. Some countries – Spain, Italy, the UK, France, and Poland – display a more widespread use of social media and with more complex usage, whilst others, such as Lithuania, have a low usage level. As a result, we maintain that there is no, one online populist strategy currently in use. Instead, the frequency, tone and topic of social media usage by populist actors differs from country to country, actor t...
Despite the growing interest in transparency policies and, concomitantly, the need to include a g... more Despite the growing interest in transparency policies and, concomitantly, the need to include a gender perspective in analysing the actions of public authorities, the intersection of both fields has attracted limited attention from the research community. The scarce contributions to this topic do not provide a framework that supports an empirical examination of institutional transparency and gender, and therefore, the implementation of these policies remains unexplored. This paper contributes to the debate on institutional transparency and gender perspective by developing an index of gender inclusion in transparency policies based on the information available on official local government websites, and by identifying and analysing factors that drive variations in the municipal councils. The research focuses on the municipalities of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (MAB) and includes other cities for comparative purposes. The findings indicate that the number of inhabitants of the m...
In the context of the severe crisis that Europe has faced in recent years, the countries of South... more In the context of the severe crisis that Europe has faced in recent years, the countries of Southern Europe have been hit hardest by policies of austerity. These policies have taken on different guises depending on each country’s specific problems and strategies. The Spanish case is illustrative of the targeting of local authorities by central government to ensure a reduction in public spending. Under the watchwords of “financial sustainability” and “rationalisation”, a wide range of actions were implemented. Some meant a loss of local autonomy, as municipal entities underwent restructuring and service provisions were reformed. However, several years after the reforms were adopted, a current evaluation shows that local governments resisted many of these top-down actions, exhibiting a high degree of institutional resilience. This chapter analyses the variety of measures adopted, taking a twofold perspective: on the one hand, it examines the specific characteristics of the Spanish gov...
Populism is the “40 is the new 30” of political research, buzzing for the last two decades with w... more Populism is the “40 is the new 30” of political research, buzzing for the last two decades with what seems as an unfading energy. A lot of attention has been paid to defining the phenomena and outlining its general features. Significantly less notice has been paid to political parties. Even less work has been done on comparative party populism in contemporary Europe, one that would take into consideration social, political and historical aspects. This paper fills this void. Examining sixteen European populist parties and movements across the continent, we argue that while all adhere to the standard populist framework, there is not one but four populisms in contemporary Europe. We demonstrate our argument by positioning the case selection against the following dichotomies: exclusionary v. inclusionary populism, authoritarian v. non-authoritarian populism, strong nativist v. weak nativist populism, and radical democratic v. conspiratorial populism. Based on these variables, we introdu...
Gestión y Análisis de Políticas Públicas – GAPP, Nov 24, 2021
Los gobiernos locales de España han implementado normativas diversas, nacionales y autonómicas, d... more Los gobiernos locales de España han implementado normativas diversas, nacionales y autonómicas, de transparencia en los últimos años. Todo el acervo normativo aprobado establecía principios e imponía obligaciones de índole muy diversa al conjunto de entes públicos, entre ellos los más de 8.000 ayuntamientos. Este trabajo se interesa por el proceso de implementación de la(s) normativa(s) de transparencia en los gobiernos locales españoles de mayor población. Concretamente, se plantea hasta qué punto esta normativa ha impulsado el cambio organizacional e institucional en los entes locales y el nivel de desempeño en términos de publicidad activa. Mediante un cuestionario específico dirigido a los municipios de mayor población y el análisis de las páginas web de los ayuntamientos, obtenemos información sobre el proceso y el nivel de implementación efectiva. En este artículo discutimos sobre dos factores determinantes para comprender el proceso de implementación: la existencia de path de...
Authors: Samuel Bennett, Artur Lipiński, Agnieszka Stępińska, David Abadi, Thomas Gammeltoft-Hans... more Authors: Samuel Bennett, Artur Lipiński, Agnieszka Stępińska, David Abadi, Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, Nicolas Hubé, Martin Baloge, Giuliano Bobba, Eglė Butkevičienė, Charlotte Brands, Agneta H Fischer, Bogdan Ianosev, Lena Karamanidou, Sune Klinge, Jiří Kocián, Umut Korkut, Jaume Magre, Moreno Mancosu, Adina Marincea, Dejan Matić, Luis Medir, Vaidas Morkevičius, Esther Pano, Franca Roncarolo, Osman Sahin, Antonella Seddone, Andrej Školkay, Gabriella Szabó, Emmanouil Tsatsanis, Giedrius Žvaliauskas This working paper presents the findings of quantitave and qualititave research into populist communication on Facebook. Specifically, we look at how populist politicians from all across Europe used Facebook in their campaigns for the European Parliamentary elections in May 2019 and compared this with a posts from July 2019. We start the paper with sections on research design and then outline the importance of social media for populist political communication. From here, we present the find...
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