Local government in Spain

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Local government in Spain refers to the government and administration of what the Constitution calls "local entities", which are primarily municipalities, but also groups of municipalities including provinces, metropolitan areas, comarcas and mancomunidades and sub-municipal groups known as minor local entities (Spanish: Entidad de Ámbito Territorial Inferior al Municipio).^[1][2]

The administration of these entities is mostly provided by a council, each with a different name and set of rules (Spanish: régimen). These councils can be collectively thought of as a third sphere (or tier) of government, the first being the State (Spain) and the second, the regional governments.^[3][4]

For various reasons, local government is heterogeneous, not distributed in a balanced way across the nation,^[5] involves duplication of services^[6] and has even been labelled dysfunctional.^[7] Although Spain adheres to the European Charter of Local Self-Government, it declares itself not bound to the full extent by the requirement for direct elections of all local government authorities. ^[8]

The governing and administrative body for most of the municipalities is the Ayuntamiento. The main organ of the Ayuntamiento is the plenary, the deliberative body formed by the elected councillors, and presided by the alcalde (English: Mayor). Unlike most European countries the mayor is not directly elected. The mayor is invested (and can be removed) by the councillors.^[9]

The concejo abierto ("open council") is the system used for the government and administration of low-population municipalities and some minor local entities. The government is exercised by a Mayor and the asamblea vecinal ("neighbourhood assembly"), formed by all the electors of the municipality. The Mayor is elected directly by the citizens.^[9]

Provinces are groupings of municipalities. Before the creation of the autonomous communities from 1978 on, provinces were the main administrative entity in Spain other than the central government. The governing and administrative body of the mainland provinces is the diputación provincial ("provincial council"). However, in six of the 17 autonomous communities (Asturias, Cantabria, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia, and Navarre), the functions of the only provincial council are assumed by the regional government.^[10] In the Balearic Islands and The Canary Islands, the functions of a provincial council are assumed by an island council on each island.

A provincial council is made up of a plenary, the deliberative body, and an executive committee formed by the president and the deputies.^[11] The provincial councillors are indirectly elected to a 4-year mandate by the municipal councils as function of the results of the municipal elections.^[12]

In contrast to the rest of Spain, the two provinces of the Canary Islands and the province of the Balearic Islands do not have provincial councils. Instead, each of the seven major islands of the Canaries is administered by a cabildo (English: island council) and the four major islands of the Balearic Islands is administered by a consejo insular (English: island council). The functions normally undertaken by a provincial council are divided between the island councils and the regional governments of the respective autonomous communities.

Comarcas are groupings of municipalities, established by regional governments, principally in Catalonia, Aragon and the Basque Country but also one in Castile and León. The comarcal council is the local administration and government body in the comarcas.

The Metropolitan Area of Barcelona is governed by a Metropolitan Council made up of representatives of the 36 councils making up its area, including the mayors as ex officio members of the council. It is responsible primarily for public transport, urban planning, water supply and treatment across the metropolitan area.

There are a variety of other administrative bodies which are highly dependent on the particular regional legislation including:

• Junta (English: assembly or board) used for some mancomunidades (not to be confused with the governing body of some autonomous communities)
• Junta vecinal used for some minor local entities particularly in Cantabria
• Alcalde pedáneo a single person mayor used for some minor local entities.
• Concejo used for some minor local entities in Álava in the Basque Country.

The number of registered local entities in June 2022 is shown in the following table.^[13]

• Canel, María José (1994). "Local government in the Spanish autonomic state". Local Government Studies. 20 (1): 44–59. doi:10.1080/03003939408433710.
• Cools, Marc; Verbeek, Leen (19–21 March 2013). Local and regional democracy in Spain. Council of Europe.
• Moreno, Angel M. (June 2016). Merloni, Francesco (ed.). Regionalisation Trends in European Countries 2007-2015: Spain. Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of The Council of Europe. pp. 183–191.
• Albet i Mas, Abel (2019). "The municipal map in Spain: structure, evolution and problems" (PDF). Geopolitica(s). Revista de estudios sobre espacio y poder (in Spanish). 10 (1): 11–40. doi:10.5209/GEOP.63834.
• Spanish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation. "Register of Local Entities". Local Entity Portal (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 June 2022.
• Local Government Act [Reguladora de las Bases del Régimen Local] (Organic Law 7/1985) (in Spanish). Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado. 1985. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
• "Local Government in Spain" (PDF). Ministry of Public Administration. Retrieved 11 June 2022.

• Local government
• Political divisions of Spain