Civil Society and Local Government

Recently (May 2015), municipal elections were held in Spain. The results of these elections can mean a major change in the management of local politics. As a result of citizenship discontent with the management of the crisis and the distrust in the traditional political parties system, most major Spanish cities are now governed by political activists through coalitions formed between some social movements and traditional parties.

The paper aims to study the first year of the municipal government in the city of Barcelona and the changes that may have been generated in terms of participation, new social policies or the possible political intervention in the economic life of the city. Both from the area of administration of previous governments and from initiatives that have emerged from organized civil society, new programs have been implemented that began to draw up a public­private partnership in the governance of the city. However, the new scenario poses some doubts about the stability of the government in the hands of people who came from social activism and the academia. Can these initiatives be the beginning of a process of social change? It seems that we are at the end of a political period in which there is a great power of economics.

The study aims to identify the institutional processes that have been generated in the first year of municipal government by the coalition "Barcelona en Comú" which won the local elections. By identifying what are the difficulties they have faced to carry out theirs new policies within the logical working of public administration, the paper will analyze the possibilities of this suggested quick change. 

The work will be based on a qualitative study using different sources. The material will be analyzed and processed using the qualitative software Atlas.ti.