Four decades of modernization vs. reform of the Public Administration in Spain

Abstract

The Spanish Constitution of 1978 hardly provides legal developments to internal functioning of Spanish Public Administrations, which have been affected by a deep decentralization and other devolution processes over the past decades. Administrative Institutions have not sufficiently assumed democratic requirements, and fundamental economic and technological changes have been partially addressed. Current administrative performance is based on several reforms which were taken in the fifties and sixties of the past century. Those measures enabled public administration to professionalize its activity, by matching neighboring countries. Thus, modernization procedures of public administration were only implemented instead of introducing wide reforms in order to switch cultural benchmarks and ways to act. The most important features of that processes are: a low political will to introduce real changes; primacy of law-formal culture; bias in design and execution of policies; decisions oriented to processes; focus on organizational changes; persistence of corporatism; a lack of political leadership and persistence; a lack of an effective intergovernmental approach; strengthening of political direction.  Administrative simplification achievements, administrative professionalization successes and citizen assistance advances have not completely fulfilled Autonomic State’s provisions and other adaptation requirements through collaborative management tools and effective implementation of Open Government principles.