Spain

Abstract

Public service in Spain is still largely characterized by the classical public administration model, based on administrative law. Efforts by Socialist Governments since 1982 to establish a new public management in central government have largely failed. This chapter describes the changes that have taken place as part of the shift towards a modern democratic state in Spain and analyses the Modernization Programme (MP), announced in the late 1980s, which aimed to introduce aspects of ‘new public management’ (NPM) into Spanish public service. This chapter also examines the problems confronting the MP and identifies where the new public managers are. To identify and locate public managers in the Spanish system, it is necessary to contrast public administration before 1978 with recent measures to modernize its administrative structures. Although the analysis portrays a modernization programme which has largely failed, there are areas of the public sector where it is possible to see the emergence of new public managers. These are to be found in Social Security, the Tax Agency, some universities and some local authorities in the Valencia Autonomous Community.KeywordsPublic SectorLocal AuthorityCivil ServantPublic AdministrationPublic ManagerThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.