Autonomous state reform in the face of challenges from regulation and integration

Abstract

One of the key political decisions taken by the 1978 Constituent Assembly was to opt for political decentralization of power. Few people question that the basic reason for adopting such a decision was to seek a response to the peripheral nationalisms of Catalonia, the Basque Country and, to a lesser extent, Galicia. At the same time, the advantages of decentralization for revitalizing inland Spain and the consequent empowerment of the citizens were placed on the table. Whatever the case, what clearly emerges from both the constituent debate and the actual wording of the Constitution is that the underlying aim of decentralization was to satisfy the nationalist pretensions of the above territories and, thus, resolve one of the secular problems of our history, a debate that should be understood within the historical framework where it took place.