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Galician Association of Economic Studies of the Public Sector |
It was held in the “Escola Galega de Administración Pública” (EGAP) ) (GALICIAN INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION) in Santiago of Compostela, on January the 14th and 15th 1999,: “Autonomic Public Expenditure”, |
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Introduction to the Congress |
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When
in the half of the 60s, the Spanish people prepared ourselves to change
into a new political regime,
with the coexistence of
a new era together with the "controlled blasting" of
Franco's power, emergencies comprised the natural state of our soul
since we already wanted to be like the rest. Some of us may have been
unfair then, on labelling some aspects of the process as too "accelerated"
as we considered, for instance, the
rhythm of the autonomic implantation. (Caramés,
1985). Today, with the passing of time, these arguments should be shaded,
since the first institutional map that was drawn wasn't too different
form the one possible. However, during the process, the development of
the system could have flown
in a more systematic and stable way. secular. |
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In the field of public expenditure, Spain will go through a late and intense growth (Alcaide, 1988), eager to recover some European standards that our Inland Revenue couldn't afford to finance. It hardly reached to supply those goods and services that were
considered essential. (Fontana, 1980; Tedde,
1981). The own characteristics of the economic structure of Spain- with
its sharp backwardness as the most important point-, the colonial wars
and a blind middle-class, became a handicap to set a modern base to a
development and to a
society that kept a huge distance from the ones close to them. In fact,
having into account the little transformation
after the liberal revolution of 1835 and the growth after the 60s, the
evolution of the public expenditure was specially slow, in consonance
with the insufficiency of the tax system. (Comin, 1988). But
with the political transition towards democracy the Spanish people had
the opportunity to demand a set of goods and public services equal to
those of the other developed countries. Besides, the simultaneity
of this historical fact together with an economic crisis which had been
ignored until that time, will raise the
expenditure , triggered by the economic stabilizers and by
policies of transferring money to companies with economic problems and
early retirements. This
was the direction taken, starting a time of growing public deficits,
that would change thanks to policies compatible with the aims of the
Economic and Monetary Union. Those deficits reveal a greater supply of
goods and services wished by our citizens, but also a series of negative
effects: from the known of real and financial expulsion until those
which influenced the already known effect of real and financial
expulsion of the Union. The
influence that may have caused the
Spanish process of decentralization in the matter of expenditure
is only known and still
half elaborated today. Even the way in which the administrative
powers were transferred contained the germ of expansion. The
evolution of the wrongly-called autonomic financial system offered
legitimate reasons for the growing indebtedness. Besides, we have to
take into account that sometimes financing the expenditure when in debt
neither brings positive macroeconomic
effects nor does it favour the
equality among generations (Caramés, 1998). Apart from
this the fiscal illusion also plays a role with a possible influence in
the expansion of the expenditure. (Monasterio y Suárez,
1993). The agreement of fiscal consolidation between the Autonomous Communities and the central State have been
considered very appropriate. Nevertheless some aspects should be
underlined: the search for efficiency is highly needed; the evaluation
of the social profits of the projects due and their financial planning
have to be in a sheer strategy. All these facts would allow the
assignation of resources towards those ranges of expenditure of
potential growth. We are also concerned - also in the budgetary and
political field of the autonomous communities-, about the priority of
the expense in infrastructures, human capital and I+D. Reaffirming what
we have already said in other part, " the difference in the profit
level that detaches the Spanish autonomous economies from the so called
"boundary countries" offers them the possibility of imitation
and adoption of highly welcomed technologies. However, this catching up power is only within the
sound of those economies which have the competence to organise this
change. If we keep on reducing the technological, educative and
infrastructural deficit, the choice of long term convergence will
outstandingly increase." (Caramés and Lago,
1999). From
our point of view, the strategic decisions in expenditure matters of the
Autonomous Communities should follow this trend. Understanding this is
not only important for its positive effects, but also for an intelligent
election in such a restrictive context as the agreement of stability may
be. The contributions to the Third Meeting of the
AGEESP, dealt with the central idea of Public Autonomic Expenditure.
With as much tenacity as modesty, the AGEESP keeps on calling- in a less
regular way than wished- all those researchers interested in the public
economy. The
high number of attendants and the divulgation in the academic sphere The collaborations in these meetings may be put in
three groups: some deal essentially with
the Public autonomous expenditure; others are related to control
matters and finally, a miscellany containing
work related to the expenditure in a collateral way. Thus, in the first group, Corona, a lecturer from
the International University of Catalonia, considers the orthodox theory
of the fiscal federalism a good defence for the decentralised systems
although he underlines the questioning of the conventional raise made by
the normative theory of the Public Choice. From
his point of view, combining just this theory and the positive approach
of the collective election, it is possible to get close to the
explicative factors
of the growth of the global public expenditure:", highlighting
the "flypaper effect" in the systems that are basically
based on transferences. With the
same methodological inspiration, lecturer Alvarez, from the University
of Oviedo, consider that the normative theory of the fiscal federalism
is not enough to explain the increase of the public autonomous
expenditure and they try to give their ideas from the constitutional
political economy, inferring the results of an investigation of 1993,
which from their point of view supports Brenan and Buchanan's
hypothesis. Matilde
Mas, from the Valencian Institute of Economic Research,
working from the description of the main characteristics of the
accumulation of capital of the Spanish economy, and after summing up
some studies about the capitalization of the regions, she analyses the
growth strategy followed by the Autonomous Communities with the help of
the FEDER funds. Dr Mas proves that
infrastructural policies are paid more attention, followed by support
the to companies. Luis
Carames and Santiago Lago, from the University of Santiago de Compostela
question the theories that are set in literature about the growth of the
public sector in order to explain the autonomic expenditure. They find
that in the dynamic of the Autonomous Communities expenditure, the rules
of evolution and the sharing of the powers is clearly reflected. Besides,
an overvalue in the weight of the political competence against the
criteria suggested by the theory of the Public Finance. Taking this
conditioning into account, they conclude that the use of conventional
methods have little to do in the understanding of the budgetary dynamic
of the Autonomies. However, the stabilization in the sharing of the
powers and the focus on the financial autonomy as far as resources are
concerned will open new perspectives. The
same authors analyse the effects of the public investment on the
productivity and economic growth in the Spanish regions, paying a
special attention to those assigned by the autonomic public finances.
They develop their empirical studies in the framework of
added functions of production
admitting that
some problems are still not solved and that there are unanswered
questions and quantifications that haven't been determined yet. In this
sense they show themselves in favour of deepening in the stock of the
public capital of the regions, so as in the study of the factors of the
investment in private productive capital in the autonomous sphere. The lecturer González Temprano, from the
Complutense Unversity, highlights that one of the most relevant
characteristics of the social expenditure is its progressive
decentralization, constituting an hegemonic item.
He also analyses the functional distribution of that expense,
paying a special attention to the allocations in Education, Health and
Housing On the other hand
Lecturers Sánchez
Maldonado and Gómez Sala, from the University of
Málaga, expound the most salient characteristics of the Andalusian
budgets for the period 1983-99, which are increasing until 1992 and
later curb, in consonance with the
stabilization of the transfer of powers. In any case, they
highlight that the public expenditure per capita of the Autonomies
practically trebles in that period, in real terms,
and that the relative participation of the
autonomic expenditure also grows in the economy of the region.
In general, they consider some positive aspects of this dynamic
highlighting, from the functional point of view, the clear predominance
of the social expenditure. As far as the public investment is concerned.
the expenditure in infrastructures has been a constant in the Andalusian
budgets, linked to policies which are directed towards growth. Dr. Berta Rivera, from the University
of Coruña, tries to measure the inequality in the Health field,
describing at the same time the distribution of the health expenditure
among the Autonomous Regions. Dr. Moldes, from the
University of Santiago de Compostela, deals also with the medical
expenditure but he centres his studies in the specific case of Galicia,
highlighting the increase of the expense in goods and services, and also
the great effort made in the medical investment, which, from his point
of view, is higher to the one made in any other region. Fernández
Leiceaga, from the University of Santiago de Compostela, expounds in his
papers a series of ideas about public expenditure in health and pensions
matters, paying special attention to Galicia and presenting different
demographic possibilities for the period between 1996-2026. The public expenditure set aside for incentive
policies and economic promotions, is dealt by the lecturers Ballesteros
and Martinez, who point out
some weak points, as for instance the too discretionary granting
of economic aids, the high ratio of investment in employment, whose
activities are just intensified in the capital cities, giving the
supremacy to the regions of A Coruña and Pontevedra. Among the positive
aspects they mark the great boost given to the internationalization of
the companies. The contribution of Dr. Roig, from
the University of Valencia, is related to the aspects of “visibility”.
He estimates that the visibility of the profits of the public
expenditure is too low, but not as low as the one of the burden of the
public expenditure, specially in Spain. An improvement in this methodology and a higher attention to
its application at the autonomous level is needed. Control aspects
are dealt with by the lecturers Laura de Pablos and
Aurelia Valiño, from the Complutense University, and by
Dr. Constenla, a lecturer from Santiago de Compostela and minister of
the accounting cabinet of Galicia. De Pablos and Valiño, study if the
budget has functioned as a means of control of the supreme fiscal organ.
Francisco Constenla, on the other hand, notices the low influence
of the demands made by the
court of auditors in the correction of some activities. “ The function
of financial control- he says- will remain incomplete unless a valuable
enough political frame is designed to demand the responsibilities of
the managers of public funds. In
a miscellaneous group of papers Profesor Gonzalez from the
University of Vigo, presents a research about public employment,
considering an investigation in this field of highly importance
since the public employment work is intense and the betterment from the
point of view of efficiency should be linked to this factor. The
decentralization triggered an expansion of bureaucracy and the decisive
incorporation of women to work, but it also brought together
inflexibility in the selection process, in the salaries, promotion,
etc., which could constitute a brake for the impulse of efficient
behaviour. Professors
Molina and Jaen, from the University of
Almeria, by means of an analysis of the incidence of the public
expenditure, study the redistribution of the income in the Andalusian
case. One of his most salient conclusions highlights the positive
contribution of the public expenditure in social services for the
reduction of social inequality. On the other hand, Professor Gradín,
from the University of
Vigo, pays special attention to the fact that the improvements made in
the case of inequality may hide a deterioration in the distribution as
far as the formation of groups is concerned.
Thus, the polarization could be defined in terms of a
distribution which presents internal homogeneous groups, but ones quite
far away from the others. Gradin
remarks that in the 80s (with a higher economic growth and
decentralization), “an increase in the bipolarization of the territory
takes place, since the richer parts of the country grow at a higher rate.”
Among some of his conclusions he considers that education is the most
important factor to explain today’s polarity. The
lecturers Joan
Pascual and Guadalupe Souto from the University of Barcelona centre their
attention on such an up-to.date topic as the environmental problems. In
their arguments they imply that the regions play a quite important role
in the design and implementation of environmental policies. Eduardo
Brandés from the University of Zaragoza and minister of the
Autonomous Government of Aragón, analyses the challenge of making the
principles of autonomy and the fiscal responsibility compatible with
solidarity and equality. Javier
Suarez, from the University of Oviedo, and Pedraja,
from the University of Extremadura, provide some criteria for the
reformation of the general and unconditional subventions system in the
subcentral treasury. In their papers they suggest an alternative formula
to the current one, including the population as the only indicator of
the need of expense. Dr.
Vazquez Tain, from the University of Santiago, revises the
situation of the local treasury in Galicia, paying also attention to the
transfer of powers from the Autonomous Community to the Local
Corporations and the investment policies. Among the conclusion drawn he
highlights well known features as the low budgets of the local treasury
in Galicia and its financial dependence. This
is just a brief summary from a very interesting
rate, not just for the central topic about which the different
contributions took place, but also for the diversity of points of view
given. We have to thank the “Escola Galega de Administración Pública”
for the interest with which
this initiative was hosted , specially its head,
Professor Bello Janeiro. I would like to thank also,
in my own name and in that of the AGEESP, the efforts made by
Dr. Santiago Lago to carry out this enterprise, and
Ana Sanjurjo for her
secretary labour which helped enormously in this task. Luis Caramés Viéitez
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| Sponsored by | Speakers |
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Consellería
de Presidencia e Administración Pública. Xunta de Galicia