Division of powers, distribution of competences, and configuration of public spheres in the autonomous state integrated in europe

Abstract

In some constitutional systems, the normativity of the Constitution is accompanied by processes of supranational integration and territorial decentralization of the State. Both processes involve a new division of power that is not normally reflected in the constitutional dogmatic but can currently be considered of greater relevance in the context of ever-greater globalization. Indeed, based on the processes of supranational integration and territorial decentralization, we can define a plurality of constitutional realities that converge in the same territory, giving a new dimension to the principle of the division of powers. That dimension is clearly projected onto the legal field, in the legal division of power, which is manifested in the distribution of competences established in the Constitutions or in the fundamental regulations of the supranational structures. However, at the same time it is projected, although to a lesser extent that it should be, onto the political division of power, in the public spheres where the democratic decision-making processes are developed. As we seek to show in this work, using the case of Spain as an example, a remarkable asymmetry exists between the projection that the distribution of competences has (and, therefore, the legal division of power) and that which the public spheres have (and, therefore, the political division of power), given that, as regards the latter, there continues to exist a predominance of the state public sphere which no longer corresponds to the distribution of competences between the different state and infra-or supra-state authorities.