Politics

Politics of Spain

The politics of Spain take place in the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic constitutional monarchy, whereby the Monarch is the Head of State and the President of the Government is the head of government in a multi-party system. Executive power is vested in the government. Central legislative power is vested in the two chambers of parliament.

Executive power

Executive power in Spain lies with the Council of Ministers (Spanish Consejo de Ministros). It is headed by the President of the Government (Prime Minister) who is nominated by the King, confirmed by a vote of the lower house of parliament and then appointed by the king. After a candidate has been nominated he must win a majority of the votes of the lower house, failing which, a second vote will be held where he only needs a plurality of votes. The Prime Minister designates the rest of the members of the Council who are then appointed by the king. He directs the activities of the government as a whole. The President of the Government can also designate various vice presidents (although it is not mandatory). There is also a Council of State that is the supreme consultative organ of the government.

Legislative branch

On the national level, Spain directly elects a legislature, the Cortes Generales (General Courts), which consists of two chambers, the Congress of Deputies(Congreso de los Diputados) and the Senate (Senado). The Congress and Senate serve concurrent terms that run for a maximum of four years.

There are two essential differences between the two houses. The first is by way of electoral practice. Both are elected on a provincial basis. The number of seats in Congress is allocated in proportion to population. However, this is only done after each province (with the exception of Ceuta and Melilla) has been given two members. The result of this is a slight over-representation for the smaller provinces. For example the smallest province, Soria, with an electorate of 78,531, elected two members of congress (or one for every 39,265 voters) while Madrid, the largest, with 4,458,540 voters, elected 35 members of congress (or 1 for every 127,387 voters). In the Senate the members are elected on a provincial basis. The electoral system used is different with proportional party closed lists being used for Congress and the Senate elected by partial bloc voting. Additionally some senators are designated by the Autonomous legislatures. The second difference is in legislative power. With few exceptions, every law is approved with the votes of Congress. The Senate can make changes or refuse laws but the Congress can ignore these amendments.

Political parties and elections

.Summary of the 9 March 2008 Congress of Deputies election results
Parties and alliances		Votes	%	Change	Seats	Change
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español)	11,288,698	43.87	1.28	169	5
	People's Party (Partido Popular)	10,277,809	39.94	2.22	154	6
	United Left (Izquierda Unida)	969,871	3.77	1.19	2	3
	Convergence and Union (Convergència i Unió)	779,425	3.03	0.20	10	0
	Basque Nationalist Party (Partido Nacionalista Vasco/Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea)	306,128	1.19	0.44	6	1
	Union, Progress and Democracy (Unión, Progreso y Democracia)	306,078	1.19	—	1	—

Judiciary

The Spanish Judiciary is exercised by professional judges and magistrates and composed of different courts depending on The Jurisdictional Order and what is to be judged, the highest ranking court of the judicial structure in Spain is the Supreme Court. The role of the judiciary is governed by the General Council of the Judicial Power whose Chairperson is also the Chairperson of the Supreme Court. The Council is conformed by 12 judges and 8 jurists elected by the Cortes Generales with a three fifths supermajority. See also Audiencia Nacional.

Administrative divisions

Regional

The 1978 constitution authorized the creation of regional autonomous governments. By 1985, 17 regions covering all of peninsular Spain, the Canaries and the Balearic Islands had passed a Charter of Autonomy. In 1979, the first autonomous elections were held in the Basque and Catalan regions, which have the strongest nationalist movements. Since then, autonomous governments have been created in the remainder of the 17 regions.

The central government continues to devolve powers to the regional governments, which might eventually have full responsibility for health care and education, as well as other social programs. This process is limited by the exclusive powers of the state in article 149 of the Spanish Constitution. All autonomous communities are ruled by a government elected by a unicameral legislature.

Provincial

In the communities with more than one province the government is held by the diputación provincial (literally Provincial Deputation). With the creation of Autonomous Communities, deputations have lost much of their power except for those single-province communities, where deputations have been absorbed by the Autonomous power, and in the Basque Autonomous Community where the power of deputations remains very strong. The members of provincial deputations are indirectly elected by citizens according to the results of municipal elections, and all of their members must be councillors of a town or city in the province, except in the Basque Provinces where direct elections take place. Some Spanish politicians have called for the abolition of provincial deputations.Provincial Deputations are considered by law as Local Administrations and are regulated by the Regulating Act of the Bases of the Local regime of 1985.

Municipal

Spanish municipal administration is highly homogeneous, most of the municipalities having the same powers, such as municipal police, traffic enforcement, urban planning and development, social services, municipal taxes and civil defence, and the same rules of membership and leadership.

Most Spanish municipalities are ruled in a parliamentary style, where citizens elect the municipal council, that acts as a sort of legislative body, that is responsible for electing the mayor who can appoint a board of governors out of councillors of his party or coalition as an executive. The only exception for this rule is in municipalities of under 50 inhabitants, which act as an open council, with a directly elected mayor and an assembly of neighbours as control and legislative body.

Membership of Municipal councils in Spain is chosen in municipal elections held every four years at the same time over Spain, and councillors are allotted using the D'Hondt method for proportional representation, with the exception of municipalities of under 100 inhabitants where bloc voting is used. The number of Councillors is determined by the population of the municipality, the smallest municipalities having 5 and Madrid (the biggest) 55.