Multilevel governance in post-transitional justice: the autonomous communities of Spain

Abstract

The method adopted by Spain in dealing with the legacy of the Civil War and the Dictatorship can be depicted as a blank page approach, incorporating a combination of amnesty and amnesia. Among the actors that challenge this official line, the Autonomous Communities (ACs) particularly energize the post-transitional justice process. Complementing, transcending and superseding the efforts at the national level, the law-making activity in AC legislatures has come in two separate and diverse waves, leading to the development of public policy and institutions dealing with the recovery of memory. Political cycles surface as the factor shaping the resilience of governments' commitment. It is argued that the reinvigorated coexistence of regionalist and left-wing parties in the ACs bodes well for further memory-related policy development and institutionalization. With an interplay and occasional discord between the national and subnational governments, the experience of Spain demonstrates that multilevel governance is an aspect to be reckoned with in relation to how countries deal with their past.