The new legal norms on town clerks in Spain: an example of civil service deregulation

Abstract

In Spain, as well as in Italy, the new Legal Norms on Town Clerks, which were mainly introduced in the 1990s, are set in a “deregulation” of the civil service; and they mean a fast regression into the 19th century. In this process the state is losing part of its jurisdiction, which goes in favour of the two government levels immediately above an bellow it: Europe and the regions. Unless the most regressive tendencies in the last two decades –a real historical break- do stop, it is probable that the Town Clerks, who were entitles by state in the 20th century, and who guaranteed the citizen’s rights in front of the system of dominance by the local party bosses, will become a 21st century “small army of barefooted bureaucrats”, as they already were in the 19th; and this fact is likely to increase the citizen’s defenselessness.