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‘Territorial Politics in Western and Eastern Europe’ The University of Edinburgh, the UK

Public policies and accountability at regional level Authors: Braulio Gómez Fortes (University of Edinburgh) Laura Cabeza Perez (UNED). ‘Territorial Politics in Western and Eastern Europe’ The University of Edinburgh, the UK Edinburgh 14th June. Regional elections matter.

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‘Territorial Politics in Western and Eastern Europe’ The University of Edinburgh, the UK

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  1. Public policies and accountability at regional levelAuthors: Braulio Gómez Fortes (University of Edinburgh)Laura Cabeza Perez (UNED) ‘Territorial Politics in Western and Eastern Europe’ The University of Edinburgh, the UK Edinburgh 14th June

  2. Regional elections matter • Most European democracies employ a multilevel system of governance • Devolution try to bring the government home to the people. • Regional governments are now responsible for the provision of services that are closer to citizens. They count on numerous and significant powers in areas such as education,public health urbanism, local government, public safety, infrastructures, transport, agriculture and the environment. • Multi-level systems of governance also raise serious concerns about their democracy deficit

  3. Holding regional governments accountable for their actions? • Devolution to regional level of government clouds responsibility attributions • The assignment of responsibility is a necessary condition for accountability • Voter confusion is the best ally of bad governments

  4. Accountability and Regional Elections What Do We Know? • Many cases about economic voting with aggregate data (Niemi et al,1995,Anderson,2006,Lago and Lago, 2010, Belanger and Gelineau, 2004;Gelineau and Remmer,2005) What about the link between regional competences and voting behaviour? If the subnational track record does not have an impact on vote-choice decisions then why should regional governments bother to work hard? Problem 1: The regional government is not the main political actor in the managment of the economy. Problem 2: With agregate data, we don’t know if citizens distinguish spheres of authority across levels of government

  5. HYPOTHESIS 1: Regional policies affect regional elections • H1: For a regional government to be held accountable for its performance we expect a positive assessment of the management of main policies whose jurisdiction belongs to the regional government to increase the likelihood of voting for the party in the regional government

  6. HYPOTHESIS 2: The attribution of responsability matters • H2: The assessment of the management of main policies will differently affect the likelihood of voting for the party in the regional government by the citizens who attribute responsibility for their management to the regional government rather than those who do not attribute primary responsibility to it.

  7. HYPOTHESIS 3:Users of regional public services,more control, (more at stake). • H3: The assessment of the management of main public services will differently affect the likelihood of voting for the party in the regional government by those who use said services as opposed those who don't use them.

  8. THE CASE • Spanish region: Andalucía (2009) Enhance clarity of responsability in a multilevel context: • Devolution of main policy: Health Care and Education in the 1980s. 30 years of experience (Leon,2010) • Regional Incumbent: Mayority Government. One party uninterrupted for 25 years • Regional and National Incumbent = same party

  9. Methodology • CIS-IESA-F.Pi i Sunyer (2008) Attribution Responsibilities Survey • N= 1086 Andalucía • Face to Face Interviews

  10. What are relevant regional policies?Objective Measures Expenditure Assigned to Health Care and Education in the regional budgets, 2008

  11. What are relevant regional policies?Subjective Measures Graph 2 Subjective Ranking of Importance of Public Policies (2007)

  12. Who is the main responsable?

  13. H1: Regional policies influence in regional elections?

  14. H2 Is it relevant the atributtion of competences?

  15. H2 Is it relevant the attribution of competences? Predicted probability of voting for regional government according to the evaluation of education and attribution of responsibilities Predicted probability of voting for regional government according to the evaluation of health care and attribution of responsibilities.

  16. H3 Users of regional public services

  17. Conclusions • The evaluation of the main regional policies influences the vote at regional elections • Right attribution of responsibilities enhance control of regional government. • The use of regional public services don't affect the control of regional governments.

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