Decentralizing Democracy: Spain and Brazil in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Does decentralization of the state enhance democratic rule?' Does democratization make decentralization more manageable? The key intervening variable governing decentralization with democratization is the coherence of the central state. Following a path-dependent logic, studies of democratization argue that an array of factors present in society, that is, in the domain of political parties and parliamentary alliances, determines the coherence of the central state.2 The stronger political society is, and the greater the coherence of central authority is, then the more likely it will be that decentralization and democratization will reinforce each other. According to this argument, Spain's well-developed political society played a key role in enhancing national authority by controlling the content and pace of state reform and regime change. In Brazil these factors were anemic or missing, thereby weakening the state in ways that allowed decentralization to endanger democracy. The emphasis on political society in studies of democratization favors static factors that fail to account for the dynamic character of decentralization and democratization. The relationship between decentralization and democratization in Spain and Brazil was shaped by intergovernmental conflicts that were never fully under the control of either national states or political society. In both cases these conflicts challenged institutional arrangements in political society that studies of democratization credit with enhancing state cohesion. Efforts to resolve the conflicts in both countries depended upon ad hoc and transitory measures that were not imposed by a coherent national state. These dynamics challenged the Spanish central government's ability to govern the expanding authorities of the regions, exacerbating emerging divisions within the ruling Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Obrera Espanol, PSOE). In Brazil runaway spending by the states was impeded by a partial reequilibration of authority and resources in the central state during Fernando Henrique Cardoso's administration (1995-present). Explanation of these dynamics requires a focus on the bargaining process among levels of government. This process is mediated by two factors: the open-endedness of institutions governing the distribution of intergovernmental authorities and resources and the political leverage wielded by central and subnational governments. Where federal institutions are open-ended, subnational governments are more likely