Development policies and politics in neoliberal times: policy mixes and transformative public-civil collaboration for sustainable collective wellbeing in Spain’s regions (1980s–2010s)

Abstract

In the recent decades, neoliberal policies have prioritized economic growth to the detriment of social cohesion and the environment. Within these policy tendencies, some societies have attempted to promote sustainable collective wellbeing through comprehensive policy mixes. From an institutionalist economic sociology perspective, this article compares how the four regions in Spain with the highest economic growth have dealt with social cohesion and the environment. Based on quantitative and qualitative data, two models are found: the liberal cases of Madrid and Catalonia, focused on economic growth, and the collectivist cases of the Basque Country and Navarre, aimed at comprehensive wellbeing. Each model displays a configuration of politics (institutional power relations and the organization of socioeconomic interests) and policy mix (the relations between two sets of policies: economic development policies and comprehensive wellbeing policies). The policy mix of the collectivist model has generated higher sustainable collective wellbeing driven by transformative public-civil collaboration.

Keywords:

• public policies
• public institutions
• government-society synergy
• institutional innovation
• comprehensive collective prosperity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The Basque Country refers to the autonomous region named the Basque Country or Euskadi. In this article both terms are used.

2 This concept was used in innovation policies (Flanagan et al., 2011).

3 Madrid (Iestadis), Catalonia (Idescat), the Basque Country (Eustat) and Navarre (Nastat).

4 https://dondevanmisimpuestos.es/ (accessed several times in 2017 and 2018).

5 https://www.observatoriosostenibilidad.com/2019/05/17/resultados-informe-sos-17-x-17-17-ods-en-las-17-ccaa-agenda-2030-en-espana/.

6 https://www.mscbs.gob.es/ssi/familiasInfancia/inclusionSocial/inclusionSocialEspana/Evolucion_indica_pobreza_09_18.pdf (accessed 10 October 2019).

7 https://www.directoressociales.com/documentos/novedades-en-discusi%C3%B3n.html (accessed 12 October 2019).

8 http://www.actualidadjuridicaambiental.com/observatorio-de-politicas-ambientales/ (accessed 15 October 2019).

9 http://archivo-es.greenpeace.org/espana/Global/espana/2015/Report/general/gp_radiografia_web.pdf (accessed November 2019).

10 Data from Ministerio de Educación (Spanish Education Ministry) (2017), Sistema estatal de indicadores de educación (National system of education indicators) 2017 edition.

11 www.observatoriometropolitano.es.

12 Ahedo, Pizzi and Belzunegui (2014) make an institutionalist analysis of economic development policies in Catalonia since the late 1990s focused on industrial and innovation policies.

13 http://www.politicaindustrialvasca.net/PIGV/politicaindustrial_en.nsf (accessed 3 June 2019).

14 https://www.mscbs.gob.es/ssi/familiasInfancia/ServiciosSociales/RentasMinimas/Informe_2018.pdf.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Manuel Ahedo

Manuel Ahedo is PhD in Sociology (2002) by the University of the Basque Country (Spain), and since 2014 teaches sociology in the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). He has mainly published in the fields of economic sociology, policy sociology, and comparative, transnational and global sociology.

Angel Belzunegui-Eraso

Angel Belzunegui is PhD in Sociology by Barcelona Autonomous University (1998), and since 2004 is Associate Professor of Sociology in University Rovira i Virgili – URV (Catalonia, Spain). He is Director of the URV Chair on Social Exclusion. He has published on a number of themes, and mainly in issues related to socioeconomic inequalities, poverty, gender, and the like. doi:10.1007/BF02687586.