Coalition Politics in Catalan Local Governments, 1979-2011 Santi Martínez Farrero ADVERTIMENT. La consulta d’aquesta tesi queda condicionada a l’acceptació de les següents condicions d'ús: La difusió d’aquesta tesi per mitjà del servei TDX (www.tdx.cat) i a través del Dipòsit Digital de la UB (diposit.ub.edu) ha estat autoritzada pels titulars dels drets de propietat intel·lectual únicament per a usos privats emmarcats en activitats d’investigació i docència. No s’autoritza la seva reproducció amb finalitats de lucre ni la seva difusió i posada a disposició des d’un lloc aliè al servei TDX ni al Dipòsit Digital de la UB. No s’autoritza la presentació del seu contingut en una finestra o marc aliè a TDX o al Dipòsit Digital de la UB (framing). Aquesta reserva de drets afecta tant al resum de presentació de la tesi com als seus continguts. En la utilització o cita de parts de la tesi és obligat indicar el nom de la persona autora. ADVERTENCIA. 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Dissertation presented by Santi Martínez Farrero to obtain the grade of Doctor en Ciència Política i de l'Administració Under the direction of Dr. Josep Mª Reniu Vilamala Program: "Dret i Ciència Política" Universitat de Barcelona Acknowledgments I must start expressing a warm thanks to any one listening to me talking about my thesis within the last years, since I have been using such a chorus in a variety of situations I am grateful for the patience and the interest shown. I commit myself to be humbler in the future, or at least to try to be a little tiny bit more modest... I am thankful to my family. My father, who has not lived enough to let me make him proud of me, as he was with my brother Pau, Doctor in Psychology, whose rigorous work for his thesis triggered my interest and encouraged me to start this adventure. To my wife Isabel, allowing me to invest a huge amount of time in the research. To our children, Alícia and Adrià, by making their own way while I was absorbed by my job and studies. Finally to my mom, to whom I do not need any special reason for acknowledging her continuous dedication to the whole family, never expecting being rewarded in any sense. Dr. Josep M. Reniu will also be awarded with my acknowledgment, since one day he accepted to become my tutor, ignoring that I was an ignorant. He has already paid for his sin, and survived to working with me. At the same time, I have been rewarded with a huge volume of knowledge that has helped me to learn and to perform the current research project. Moreover, I must enormously thank Marta’s valuable patience and dedication, reading every single word and sentence of the present document in our weekly lessons of English for the political science. I cannot forget anyone of the authors included in the Bibliography, since reading their works has been a continuous source of motivation for enhancing the scope of my research. My gratitude must also go, of course, to the interviewed politicians who made me understand how wide and varied the range of political options is. Also I thank all the people involved and seriously committed to the local politics, being the essential and actual bridge linking the professional politics and the citizens’ real lives, with real day-to-day needs. To finish, I particularly thank all of you because you have allowed me to become a better citizen. If I have not, it is not your fault... General Index General Index ................................................................................................................................. i Index of Tables ..............................................................................................................................iv Index of Graphs ........................................................................................................................... viii Index of Images ............................................................................................................................. xi Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 I- Hypothesis and Data Collection .......................................................................................... 16 1- Hypothesis ....................................................................................................................... 16 2- Data Collection Methodology ......................................................................................... 17 2.a) The Website of the Municipality .................................................................................. 18 2.b) The Internet Archive .................................................................................................... 19 2.c) MUNICAT ...................................................................................................................... 20 2.d) PADICAT ....................................................................................................................... 21 2.e) BOP (Butlletí Oficial de la Província) .......................................................................... 21 2.f) The Municipal Archive .................................................................................................. 24 2.g) The County Archive ...................................................................................................... 25 2.h) Interviews to politicians ............................................................................................... 26 3- The database ................................................................................................................... 29 4- The Survey about the importance of the portfolios ....................................................... 36 II- Theoretical Context ............................................................................................................. 41 1- Definitions ....................................................................................................................... 41 2- The formal theories: ........................................................................................................ 43 2.a) The political parties seen as unitary actors .................................................................. 43 2.b) The coalition governments as majority governments ................................................. 44 2.c) Any Winning Coalition (WC) is an option ..................................................................... 45 3- The Multidimensional theories ....................................................................................... 48 3.a) The historical dimension .............................................................................................. 48 3.b) The institutional dimension ......................................................................................... 49 3.c) The Motivation ............................................................................................................. 49 3.d) The Horizontal / Vertical dimension ............................................................................ 51 3.e) The internal dimension ................................................................................................ 52 3.f) The socio-political dimension ....................................................................................... 54 i 3.g) The external dimension ................................................................................................ 54 III- The Political Context ....................................................................................................... 56 1- Historical Environment .................................................................................................... 56 2- Local elections as part of a multi-level contest ..............................................................