Crisis and Corruption in Spain: Improving the Quality of Governance to Fight Corruption

Year 2023, Volume: 32 Issue: 1, 1 - 14, 08.04.2023

Fernando Jimenez-sanchez

https://doi.org/10.26650/siyasal.2023.32.1249638

Abstract

This paper analyses data on the skyrocketing perception of corruption in Spain and links this perception not so much to an increase in bribery as to growing dissatisfaction with the functioning of the political system. For this reason, it argues that there is an urgent need to improve the quality of Spain's government institutions if citizens' trust in their public institutions is to be restored. Corruption scandals in Spain have mainly emerged from sources such as town planning, public procurement and, above all, illegal party funding. All these corruption sources have evidenced serious institutional problems in Spanish governments and public administrations in all levels (national, regional and local). The paper poses nine reforms to raise quality of government in Spain. The first four proposals (strengthening the oversight capability of legislatures, the judiciary independence, the role of independent authorities, and reducing governments interference in the work of the media) focus on making limitations on the executives actually effective. The final five ones (improving quality of regulation, increasing professionalization of higher levels of public administration and public companies, maximizing transparency and the right to access to public information, protecting effectively whistleblowers, and disincentiving political careers of civil servants) focus on reducing the opportunities for corruption.

Keywords

Corruption, Spain, Quality of government, institutional reforms, public trust

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