Regional Administrative Boundaries and the Building of Internal Borders in Decentralised States. The Case of Two Spanish Interregional Borders

The progressive devolution of powers in decentralised states requires a culture of interregional cooperation to ensure that the tendency to create differentiated regional legal systems can be overcome. Indeed, it is the border areas between these regions that are most likely to suffer the negative impact of any lack of interregional coordination. The implementation of different, or even contradictory, public policies and norms transforms the administrative boundary between regions into a real border, hindering the relationship between municipalities that share the same geographical space. This chapter analyses the construction of just such an internal border formed by the administrative boundary between three of Spain’s regions (autonomous communities) and examines how the failure to achieve interregional cooperation has negative consequences for the municipalities adjacent to this boundary. Based on the responses of mayors and town clerks recorded in focus groups and questionnaires, we see how the malfunctioning of mechanisms of interregional cooperation is an impediment to inter-municipal relations and serves to bolster the internal border. However, the municipalities making up the border area maintain, albeit not without certain difficulties, a rich network of relationships that structure and organise the territory from a cross-border perspective. Our research indicates that interregional cooperation is a necessary counterweight to decentralisation and that, as part of that cooperation, the municipalities have an important role to play. Moreover, cooperation mechanisms must also be available at the local level to complement, or even replace, interregional cooperation in the event that the latter fails to do its job properly.