Comparing law-making activities in a quasi-federal system of government: the case of Spain

Abstract

In this article the authors develop a new approach to the study of policy dynamics in a quasi-federal system of government. The goal is to contribute to previous research on comparative federalism by analyzing the variations of issue attention between levels of government and across four regional governments Andalusia, Catalonia, Galicia, and the Basque Country. To do so the authors follow the policy dynamics approach, developing a comparative and empirical analysis about issue attention across time, territories, and policy subsystems. The analysis relies on an extensive database, created following the methodology of the Comparative Agendas Project, which includes all laws passed from the early 1980s to present. The results indicate that legislative agendas have become increasingly diverse since the 1990s, and this is partly explained by party preferences and the type of government