The politics of the economic crisis and restructuring in the Basque Country and Spain during the 1980s

Abstract

This paper argues that, in order to understand economic crises, we need to approach them in a multifaceted way and pay attention to the extra-economic elements. Economic crises, far from being irrevocably identifiable through objective indicators, are subject of multiple interpretations. Consequently, we need to pay attention to the perceptions of those key actors involved in taking decisions and study the policy-making processes during crises in the context of states as contradictory and never-fixed institutional arrangements with possibly contradictory territorial projects. The economic crisis in Spain and, more specifically, in the Basque Country during the 1980s is presented in this paper as a case study in which these research challenges are addressed.