ABSTRACT
Spanish process of re-centralization under Rajoy has three implications for several other debates in the field of comparative politics. First one is the dilemma of responsiveness versus responsibility that the Eurozone crisis highlighted the gap between the government's responsiveness and responsibility. In the case of Spain, the introduction of budget discipline and a rationalization of regional and local government architecture during the sovereign debt crisis resulted in declining autonomy for regions. Second one is the centre-periphery cleavage that the debate on the efficacy of Spain's multi-level government contributed more tension to the relations between regionally based nationalist parties and defenders of the Spanish homeland. The initiatives of the Partido Popular (PP) government made the accommodation of nationalist demands more difficult and contestation from the periphery more likely. Third one is the ability of institutions to contain nationalist conflict that the economic crisis brought to the fore the question of the ability of Spanish institutions to contain nationalist conflict.
