A Step Backwards or a Step Forwards? The Politics and Policies of Decentralization under the Governments of thePartido Popular

This article analyses the extent to which the centralist and unitary perceptions of Spanish national identity, historically linked to right-wing state-wide parties, guided the policy choices on political decentralization made by the governments of the Partido Popular (PP) (1996–2004), especially those related to the participation of the Autonomous Communities within state-wide politics and policy processes. Using data on intergovernmental conflicts, it finds that although the PP governments did actively neglect the political role of the Autonomous Communities at the state level, this behaviour was as much related to their adherence to the traditional right-wing attitude towards political decentralization itself as to their desire to prevent the Autonomous Communities acting as a political opposition.