Preliminary note

Since it is not easy to draw a line between ‘government’ and ‘administration’, logically these should be dealt with in one chapter. However, for reasons of presentation and balance, it has been thought preferable to make a break, however artificial, between the two. Thus, chapter 5 will deal with the executive or decision-making tier, including the prime minister, the ministers and the Council of Ministers, as well as those bodies which advise the government and central civil service. Chapter 6 will examine the administrative levels, including the ministerial departments and the various autonomous administrative bodies dependent on them. It is accepted, however, that there are risks in any neat form of categorisation and that, particularly in Spain where the term ‘central administration of the state’ is commonly used to embrace all the above institutions, there will inevitably be some measure of overlap between the two. This is especially so in the case of the ministers who belong to the executive but head large departments of public administration. Thus, chapters 5 and 6 should be regarded as a continuum.

In the course of chapters 5–it will also become apparent that in present-day Spain government and administration operate at three theoretical levels, which in practice function as four. These are: (i) central; (ii) regional (relating to the autonomous communities); and (iii) local – the latter being divided into the provincial and municipal tiers of administration (figure 5.1).