ABSTRACT
The Spanish political transition that took place at the end of the 1970s was twofold: from authoritarianism to democracy and from centralism to decentralization. While the reference point of the first process had to coincide with the standard rules of European democracies, the new territorial organization posed more serious problems since it was supposed to ensure the coexistence of different national identities. Thanks to its ambiguity, the 1978 constitutional compromise facilitated the agreement between the conflicting interests at stake. However, it also conferred on political parties the responsibility to translate continuously into concrete terms the constitutional principles of ‘unity’ and ‘autonomy’. The formula that resulted is known as café para todos (coffee for all). This largely explains the contradictions as well as the permanent questioning of the territorial state. Moreover, it should be remembered that political decentralization occurred precisely at a time of deep restructuring of nation-state sovereignty in Europe as a result of European integration, globalization and the resurgence of national identities.
