Hard power or soft power? The Office of the President in the Government of Spain

Authors

  • Antonio Garrido
  • M. Antonia Martínez

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/rep.180.06

Keywords:

Spain, presidency, institutional presidency, presidential office, core executive, cabinet, Moncloa office, president’s and prime ministers’ chief of staff.

Abstract

This article presents original research that seeks to evaluate the dynamic and political, although not strictly formal, functioning of the Office of the Presidency of the Government, popularly known in Spain as “Moncloa” or “the complex of Moncloa”. To this end, it presents for the first time the perspectives of the different heads of the Office (chiefs of staff), investigating the way they work through a set of interviews that also includes one of the presidents of the Government. The objective is to understand, from this double angle, the two vertices of the relationship between the prime minister and his main source of information and advice. The paper addresses the emergence and expansion of this body in the Spanish Government, its genesis and transformation, using unpublished documents from the archives of the Presidency of the Government and, finally, by analyzing -in practice- the structure, powers and functions of the Office in the decision-making process.

Issue

Section

ARTICLES