In the last panel discussion of this researchers meeting, they talked about governance and public policies from a multi-disciplinary focus. Each member made their contribution around the three pointed questions by the emeritus full-time university professor of the UV and co-director of the congress, Joan Romero: which is your diagnosis about multilevel governance in Spain?, which are the spaces from the Spanish regulatory framework that could be improved to tackle situations such as the DANA? and which is the cost of the “not-metropolis”?
Regarding the first question, they described the current situation remembering the paradox in which politic leaders found themselves in the 2001 Europe, according to El libro blanco de la gobernanza europea. The European population hopes for solutions to the big social problems, but at the same time, citizenship has less and less confidence in politic institutions.
When we talk about governance, it is not of institutions, hierarchy, competences, but of how to confront, from the group of institutions and citizenship, the challenges we are facing. It is a significant change in perspective, in this case of how to resolve group problems; it is different government (institutionalism), from governance (collective resolution ability of institutional problems). In Spain we have a logic hierarchic competence complex structure: general vision of the State, 17 autonomic communities, 8.000 municipies.
The specialists reunited in this panel tend to the proximity of making easier the tackling of the problem: “on the local is the key to the ability to confront the complex problems”. It is important to know how to select the model that best fits to each situation to apply accordingly the centralisation or decentralisation.
Furthermore, they explained that we do not have a an univocal, unanimous and definitive response, to say that in situations such as the DANA there will be a solution of univocal governance. The competence question is too complex, but they warn that the jury has mechanism and tools to solve it.
Joan Romero, Joaquín Farinós, Antonio Serrano, Joan Subirats, Ricard Gomà, Reyes Marzal and Andrés Boix participated in this panel discussion. Complete content of this conference in the next video.
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