Georgina Blakeley

Local governance and local democracy: The Barcelona model

Using Barcelona as a case study, this article examines the relationship between local governance and local democracy. It begins with the terms of the debate and continues by identifying the context in which a particular model of governance arose in Barcelona. The article then looks at the extent to which governance fosters democracy, by strengthening the role of civil society organisations in government and creating new spaces of deliberation between the state and the citizenry. The final section examines the limitations of Barcelonas model of local governance in enhancing local democracy. The key finding is that the predominant role of the local council in facilitating citizen participation has as many strengths as it has weaknesses. In short, when participation becomes public policy it becomes a double-edged sword.

Digging up Spain’s past: consequences of truth and reconciliation

Over the last decade the issue of transitional justice has attracted considerable media and academic attention. Diverse countries including such high profile cases as Chile, South Africa and the former East Germany have attempted to grapple with the complex question of how to respond to human rights abuses committed under a previous regime. Transitional justice generally surfaces as an issue during democratic transition. It is less common for this issue of past human rights abuses to be raised when democratic transition has been completed and democracy is fully consolidated. The subject of this article, however, is Spain, where the human rights abuses committed during the 1936–39 civil war, and the long Francoist dictatorship that followed, have only recently come to the fore, a full quarter of a century after the transition to democracy. The article argues that the current struggle to recover the bodies of the disappeared, and their historical memory, represents a significant case which not only provides new insights into the particular democratization process in Spain but also provides more general lessons for other countries grappling with similar problems.

`It's like Maintaining a Hedge': Constraints on Citizen Engagement in Community Regeneration in East Manchester

Since participation at the local level is frequently urged as a solution to political disengagement (Stoker, 2006), it is important to acknowledge the structural obstacles to the ready imposition of the participatory project. This article argues that this focus upon popular democratic participation in urban affairs neglects the realities of political and social life, particularly for poorer areas of cities, and the structural constraints that greatly limit the opportunities for residents to engage actively within their community. From this perspective, the miracle is how much participation occurs rather than how little.

Clientelism in the building of state and civil society in Spain

About the book: This book charts the evolution of clientelist practices in several western European countries. Through the historical and comparative analysis of countries as diverse as Sweden and Greece, England and Spain, France and Italy, Iceland and the Netherlands, the authors study both the ‘supply-side’ - the institutional context in which party leaders devise and implement their political strategies - and the ‘demand-side’ - the degree of ‘empowerment’ of civil society - of clientelism. This approach contends that clientelism is a particular mix of particularism and universalism, in which interests are aggregated at the level of the individual and his family ‘particularism’, but in which all interests can potentially find expression and accommodation ‘universalism’. In contrast, ‘consociationalism’ and ‘corporatism’ are systems of interest representation in which interests are aggregated at the level of ‘social pillar’ or the functional association ‘universalism’, but in which not all interests can find representation and accommodation ‘particularism’. • Presents clientelism and patronage as political strategies • Applies a historical /comparative approach to Western Europe • Engages the past and future of democratic interests representation.

Evaluating Spain's Reparation Law

The Reparation Law1 approved on 26 December 2007 is the latest link in a chain of reparatory measures from the earliest days of Spains transition to democracy to deal with the legacy of the Civil War and the Francoist dictatorship. Numerous articles have analysed the historical memory movement2 and the reasons behind the timing and scope of Spains reckoning with the past.3 This literature presents the case of Spain as a counterpoint to the received wisdom of the transitional justice literature that successful democratization requires reconciliation. This article contributes to the specific literature on Spain, and the wider transitional justice literature, by focusing on an area which has not yet been analysed: the ‘co-construction’ and content of the Law. Through a comparison of the draft bill and the final Law, this article fills this gap.

The Regeneration of East Manchester: A Political Analysis

East Manchester has been the site of one of the most substantial regeneration projects internationally. The initiative in east Manchester confirmed the tag that the city is the ‘regeneration capital’ of the United Kingdom. While the book focuses on a single project, it has wider relevance to national and international regeneration initiatives. The book assesses the outcomes of the regeneration, although it demonstrates the difficulties in producing a definitive evaluation. It has a political focus and illuminates and challenges many assumptions underpinning three major current academic debates: governance, participatory democracy and ideology. The book is relevant to students of politics, geography, sociology, public administration and recent history but will also interest practitioners, academics and general readers interested in urban regeneration. Mancunians will also be fascinated by the rapidly changing face and character of their city as will those with an interest in Manchester’s football, the Commonwealth Games and Sportcity.

Leading the way? The relationship between 'Devo-Manc', Combined Authorities and the Northern Powerhouse

The proposal for a Northern Powerhouse and the development of combined authorities are inextricably connected. In both cases, Manchester plays a pivotal role which is not challenged by the May Government’s focus on national rather than simply Northern regeneration. Manchester’s leadership of the combined authorities initiative is based on its institutional maturity and its central role in the promotion of the Independent Economic Review to develop an economic strategy for the Northern Powerhouse. There is evidence that in the existing governance vacuum of the Northern Powerhouse, the leadership of the GMCA will provide a fulcrum, although there remains uncertainty about the long-term sustainability of both combined authorities and the Northern Powerhouse, until both are tested by the decisions to be taken about Northern transport interconnectivity and the impact of the metro-mayoral elections.

“Vestir el muñeco”: Torcuato Fernández-Miranda, la “herestética” y la Ley para la Reforma Política [“Keeping up Appearances”: Torcuato Fernández-Miranda, “Heresthetics” and the Spanish Law for Political Reform]

Este articulo trata de explicar un desenlace politico inesperado: ?por que una inmensa mayoria de procuradores franquistas voto a favor de la Ley para la Reforma Politica, la cual suponia su propia muerte politica? A partir del concepto de «herestetica», el articulo analiza las maniobras estrategicas llevadas a cabo por Torcuato FernandezMiranda, el presidente de las Cortes franquistas, que garantizaron que la Ley se aprobase. Un analisis tematico de los tres dias de discusion de la Ley en el pleno de las Cortes revela la importancia de la manera en la que se planteo y se determino la dimensionalidad de esta Ley, lo que debe considerarse como una signifi cante maniobra «herestetica» en una situacion de transicion en la que la necesidad de mantener las apariencias, es decir, de «vestir el muneco», era de vital importancia. This article attempts to explain an unexpected political outcome: Why, when it would result in their own political demise, did an overwhelming majority in the Francoist parliament vote in favour of the Law for Political Reform in 1976? Based on the concept of heresthetics, this article analyses the strategic manoeuvres of Torcuato Fernandez-Miranda, the president of the Francoist Cortes, which led to the passage of the Law. A thematic analysis of the three days of debate over the Law in the Cortes shows the way in the which the discussion was raised and the dimensionality of the Law determined, and reveals significant “heresthetic” maneuvering in a situation of transition in which the need to maintain appearances was of vital importance.

CITIZEN PARTICIPATION IN EAST MANCHESTER: FROM PRACTICE TO THEORY

Utilising the major urban regeneration project launched by government in east Manchester in 1998, our aim is to evaluate the nature and extent of the involvement of local residents in the project and to use our findings to review democratic theory. We invert the normal theory and practice relationship to argue that it is sometimes valuable to build on existing practice in assessing democratic involvement rather than to proceed simply on the basis of normative theoretical ideals.