Resumen de Executive Politics in Spain
The chapter offers an overview of the main features of executive politics in democratic Spain. Adopting a core executive approach, it focuses on the actors and the processes defining the interaction and the power relationship between the prime minister, the ministers, and the cabinet at the national level. The main argument discusses the ‘presidentialization’ thesis in Spain. Instead, it proposes a more complex dynamics based in the exchange of power resources among actors within the government. Although institutional and political factors – like party politics and the personalization of politics – have favoured the prime minister’s predominance, other factors help to counterbalance this trend with elements of ministerial government. The chapter also discusses the (limited) role of political parties within governments, and the multilevel trend reshaping the nature of the executive in Spain.
