THE REFORM OF THE AUTONOMOUS STATE. DIVERSITY OF PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

Abstract

The Spanish State of autonomies needs to address two different crises. The first one is caused by the Catalan claims for secession. The second one, by a general exhaustion of a model of territorial organization that was very vaguely designed in the 1978 Constitution and that, despite its remarkable success, shows clear signs of disfunctionality. The answers to both crises need to be different too. Regarding the Catalan situation, the proposed political and legal response is a constitutional reform that recognizes the plurinationality of Spain and, within this, the singularity of Catalonia. The possibility of holding a referendum in Catalonia prior to the constitutional reform in order to ask about the possible separation of Catalonia from Spain should not be dismissed. The response to the functional crisis of the State of autonomies requires a reform of the Constitution that adopts a federal approach and includes in the legal text the distribution of powers amongst the State and the autonomous communities, the reform of the Senate and the basic principles of the financing system