The Perils Of Meddling With Town Halls

Ciudadanos is one of what can seem like a baffling array of political parties that are positioned to the left of centre. It is a comparatively new entity, having been formed in 2006 initially as a party in Catalonia but which is now country-wide. It has performed reasonably well in its Catalonian heartland (nine parliamentary seats at the 2012 election) but less well nationally; it has no deputy in Congress. Nevertheless, a recent poll suggested that the party could take 12% of the national vote, which is an extraordinarily high poll rating when one considers the support for Podemos.

Ciudadanos is a reminder that reforming parties had been created some years before Podemos came on the scene. Changes to the political system, anti-corruption, Ciudadanos has had something of the Podemos philosophy without drawing as much attention to itself. It was a creation of a time that well pre-dated Podemos when great misgivings with the current political system were already been voiced. Almost simultaneous with its founding was that of the centrist Unión Progreso y Democracia (UPyD), which has also placed emphasis on political reform and with which pacts have been suggested but ruled out.

One area of reform that Ciudadanos (C's) and the UPyD have in common is that of local government. The UPyD has previously advocated reducing the number of town halls in Spain. The president of C's, Albert Rivera, agrees. He proposed the other day that town halls be cut by a massive 7,000, to leave only 1,000 and did so within the context of a programme of "democratic regeneration". In this, the emphasis differs to that of the UPyD, which has pointed to the massive cost savings that could be made.

But is Rivera's proposal contradictory? A strong argument in favour of small units of local government is that they benefit democracy. Localism increases citizen involvement, it hastens and improves decision-making, it acts as a buttress against corruption of more centralised forms of government. These small units can be and are tiny. In Mallorca the tiniest is Escorca with fewer than 300 people, greatly outnumbered by the local goat population.

This theory of localism is not, however, well observed in practice. Town halls may be better at understanding local issues and so making informed decisions, but as for citizen involvement and corruption, the evidence in favour doesn't stack up. There is repeated criticism of the lack of transparency and information at town halls, which therefore limits involvement, while corruption cases or allegations of corruption are never too far from the surface. Just consider that at present there are investigations related to Andratx, Calvia (the radio affair), Felanitx, Lloseta, Marratxi, Pollensa, Vilafranca. Go back over time and you will find any number of cases of corruption, allegations and electoral fraud. It might be noted that the leader of the El Pi party, Jaume Font, was once disqualified for eight months from public office because of such a fraud in Sa Pobla, which he denied. (And he subsequently romped home as mayor.)

For all the faults with local, town hall government, Rivera's proposal sounds like one that would replace one imperfect system with another. If localism, warts and all, is truly a more democratic form of government, then how would drastically undermining it result in democratic regeneration? The UPyD line, that of greater efficiencies in terms of cost and administration, has, on the face of it, more merit, but however the case for reducing the number of town halls is styled, a reduction would bring with it perils.

The UPyD suggested three years ago that towns with fewer than 20,000 people in Mallorca should be merged. In other words the town halls would be merged. Under this suggestion, there would be only five municipalities that would be unaffected. For modernisers and, dare I say it, those with a British perspective on such matters, the suggestion would make sense; it is undeniable that services in smaller towns are comparatively and proportionally more expensive than in larger towns. But it is a suggestion that flies in the face of the sociology and culture of the villages and towns. The town hall is symbolic of local identity. It may not be the final word in efficiency. It may not be without its dodginess, but when there are villages like Buger (fractionally more than 1,000 people) which can celebrate anniversaries of "independence", the importance of village identity and of its prime institution makes tampering with that institution extremely risky.

The risk may explain why national government has shied away from radical reform. Significant reductions in the number of councillors (which will be the case with this year's elections) are as far as it has gone. It might be said that it has missed the opportunity, presented by economic crisis, to effect real reform, but was there ever the stomach for it?