The implementation of the Cost-Effective in Spanish local entities: Analysis of institutional work in a case study

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the forms of institutional work carried out by different actors with regard to the emergence and implementation of Cost-Effective of Local Government Services (CESEL, Coste Efectivo de los Servicios de las Entidades Locales). The results of the longitudinal case study evidence that the main actors, Central Government and Local Government, carried out different types of institutional work (political, cultural and technical), by arising conflicts during their development due to the different institutional logics in which they were supported: economic efficiency and social interest, respectively. This work contributes to the theoretical perspective adopted by evidencing that the ways in which institutional work is developed by different actors determine the final configuration of the new institution that is to be created. Thus, although the regulation established that the purpose of CESEL is to deepen on compliance with the principles of efficiency and transparency of local public management, the ways in which the institutional work has been developed during its implementation have configured it as an instrument for transparency and also it presents serious limitations so that transparency is effective.