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Cases of corruption, embezzlement, theft and fraud, abuse of discretion, favoritism, nepotism, clientelism, and abuse of power in governments have led to a growing demand from society to access public information. In response to this demand, governments have been forced to be more transparent in the conduct of their activities. The information transparency index (TI) may be conditioned by economic and political characteristics of local governments affecting the information provided. What factors influenced the index of municipal transparency? Literature about transparency is largely based on the explanations of the agency theory and the legitimacy theory. Based on the postulates of both theories, the purpose of this paper is twofold. First, study the index transparency in Spanish municipalities, and, second, determine the main features that are affecting the index of transparency.

Data were collected from Transparency International Spain ranking and from official sources. Univariate and multivariate analysis are performed for the treatment of data.

The results shows that political factors like electoral turnout, political ideology, and political competition have a significant effect on the index of transparency. Gender has no significant effect on the index of transparency.

This study is a contribution to the growing body literature of transparency in order to understand what explains the variations of the TI among municipalities.

This manuscript studies municipal transparency in Iberian countries, Spain and Portugal, to analyse similarities and differences in both countries. Despite some political-administrative similarities, the way Spain and Portugal, deal with the issue of transparency may vary.

Based on the levels of municipal transparency, this work aims to analyse how legal and institutional context and political factors framed the way municipalities are managing the “naming and shaming” approach resulting from the creation of the Municipal Transparency Index. A descriptive analysis of the levels of municipal transparency will be carried out and a multivariate analysis to study the characteristics that may be determining differences and similarities between the two countries.

The study shows similarities in municipal transparency in Iberian countries, the positive effect of the “naming and shaming” approach on transparency and the influence of legal and institutional factors in transparency.

While there is extensive attention to municipal transparency at the country level, less research focuses on comparing municipal transparency in countries that have similar political-administrative characteristics. This study addresses this research gap by investigating two neighbouring countries.

The application of new public governance by many countries has led to the creation of new management systems in public administration and the development of an effective accounting structure with efficient internal control to guarantee a proper provision of services that meet citizens’ requirements. The purpose of this paper is to focus on Spanish local government with the intention of determining the impact of the internal control structure on the disclosure of financial information on the internet.

The empirical analysis used combines a descriptive aspect with an explanatory one and seeks to answer the question of whether the internal control system (ICS) influences the disclosure of financial information on the websites of Spanish LGs. The authors use a multivariate model that allows us to verify the predictive capability of the previously defined explanatory variable, internal control, in 1,806 local governments. To test the hypotheses, the authors use two different models.

The authors consider the existence and quality of the financial information disclosure in relation to ICSs, and a series of financial and non-financial variables. The authors conclude that the structure of the ICS influences financial information disclosure and its quality. Also, the socio-political variable gives a better explanation of financial information disclosure than the financial variable.

This research is novel to determine whether the development of ICSs in Spanish municipalities has favored and increased the disclosure of financial information financial through the municipalities’ website transparency portal. These findings will contribute to increase the importance of internal control in the management of public entities.

The analysis of cultural consumption centers on the influence of individual characteristics (mainly social class). However, this chapter proposes that this relationship is contextual. More specifically, this relationship varies according to the nature of local cultural scenes where people live. In order to show the contextual impact of cultural scenes, we analyze a representative survey among a Spanish population. Three main conclusions are drawn. First, two main dimensions explain the patterns of cultural consumption by the Spanish population: the classical distinction between popular and high culture, and the distinction between conventional and unconventional cultural practices. Second, other characteristics, beside social class, are important to explain the implication of population in different patterns of cultural consumption, for instance, age; young people are oriented toward more unconventional practices regardless of their social class. Third, local cultural scenes matter: the difference between cultural practices of different groups (for instance, young and old people) is reduced in municipalities oriented toward unconventionality, showing an “assimilation contextual effect.” This contextual effect also has some impact upon local cultural policies that we mention briefly.

The analysis of lifestyles and cultural consumption has focused mainly on determining the impact of individual attributes on the types of practices developed by individuals. However, the effect of the access or exposure to certain opportunities of cultural consumption is less frequently analyzed, or even whether this exposure has different effects according to different social groups. The analysis of this issue is one of the objectives of the “Cultural Scene” research program, which is being developed under the project “Cultural Dynamics of Cities.” In this chapter, we try to determine whether existing cultural scenes in different municipalities influence how Spanish residents develop their cultural practices, with data from a nationally representative survey.

This paper seeks to extend the analysis of performance management regimes by Bouckaert and Halligan to other countries in order to contribute to the developing theory of forms and challenges in public sector performance management.

The state of performance management and the context in which it has evolved is assessed in seven different countries using dimensions drawn from Bouckaert and Halligan's work along with elements from earlier work by Pollitt and Bouckaert. These are summarized in a table and comparisons made to generate additional insights into the factors that influence the shape and speed of public management evolution.

The paper finds that the Bouckaert and Halligan framework for analyzing public sector performance management is useful, albeit with some modifications. Specifically, it finds that administrative culture is a key factor influencing the speed of reform and that the attitude of elites (politicians and civil servants, in most cases) is also a vital piece of the puzzle that was not included in Bouckaert and Halligan, but did appear in the earlier framework of Pollitt and Bouckaert. It also finds evidence that economic and political crises occurring together accelerate the introduction of integrated performance management systems, but that trust in government does not appear to be a significant factor. Finally, the paper observes that, absent political crisis/commitment, governments will prioritise “external” performance measures such as customer service, participation and transparency objectives over “internal” performance measures such as financial, staff management and whole of government reporting.

The countries studied provide a rare insight into lesser‐known performance management regimes and the use of the Bouckaert and Halligan framework allows for comparisons to earlier (and future) research. The findings will be of interest to scholars in public administration reform and performance management.

This paper aims to investigate the extent of intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) through websites and social media in Spanish local government (SLG) and analyze the factors that explain their disclosure.

The study applies content analysis and regression techniques. The ICD is analyzed for Spanish municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants and provincial capitals over a period from January 2018 to February 2020.

Findings emphasize that the quantity of disclosed information on intellectual capital (IC) is in the low level, particularly with regard to human capital (HC). Furthermore, the results show that the information provided via social media mainly concerns the relational capital (RC). On the other hand, results obtained indicate that larger municipalities, with lower financial autonomy and whose citizens have a high income level use the online media (both websites and social media) more actively to disclose information about IC. Finally, municipalities led by women and with high level of citizens' education exert a positive influence in the ICD only on websites.

This paper makes a number of key contributions to the existing body of knowledge, focusing on ICD, a neglected area in the public sector accounting literature. It explores and identifies the supply-side and demand-side determinants of information affecting the ICD in local governments. The results of this research could be useful for policymakers, regulators and governments' managers to improve the online information addressing ICD issues.

This paper adopts an innovative perspective by investigating the use of alternative tools for ICD in local government context (websites and social media). To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that focuses on investigating the determinants of online ICD in local governments.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the Law on Budgetary Stability of 2012 over the level of accumulated debt in Spanish municipalities. The paper also analyses the influence of the socioeconomic environment, political factors and budgetary indicators on the level of accumulated debt for the 2008–2014 period, which coincides with the economic crisis.

The paper uses panel data methodology. First, the t-test of difference of means is used to analyse which political variables are significant. Then, the analysis is carried out using the generalised method of moments in order to obtain the explanatory variables of the level of debt.

The results show that in 2013–2014, the Law on Budgetary Stability did not have a significant effect on reducing the accumulated debt. However, the law has led to a change of the trend in debt levels, as the debt decreased from 2013 to 2014. Moreover, population, unemployment, immigration, personnel expenditure, direct fiscal pressure and level of investment have an influence over the level of accumulated debt.

This paper contributes to analyse to what extent the Law on Budgetary Stability has affected accumulated debt. The study reveals a slight impact on reducing debt, although it is not significant. An original aspect of this paper is that it uses dynamic models to study the accumulated debt of Spanish municipalities. The study shows the impact of socioeconomic, environmental and political factors as well as of budgetary indicators on the level of debt in the context of economic crisis.

En este artículo se analiza el impacto que tiene la normativa de estabilidad presupuestaria española del año 2012 en el nivel de deuda acumulada de los municipios españoles. También se contrasta la influencia del entorno socioeconómico, político y presupuestario en el nivel de deuda viva durante el periodo 2008-2014 que coincide con la crisis económica.

Para alcanzar los objetivos, se utiliza la metodología de datos de panel. En primer lugar, se realiza un test de medias por el cual se descartan las variables políticas no significativas. Posteriormente, se plantea el Método Generalizado de Momentos (GMM) para obtener las variables explicativas del endeudamiento.

Se evidencia que durante el periodo 2013-2014, la normativa de estabilidad no ha tenido un efecto significativo en la reducción de la deuda viva. No obstante, la legislación ha permitido cambiar la tendencia del nivel de deuda, ya que durante 2013-2014 el endeudamiento se redujo. Además, se constata que la población, el desempleo, la inmigración, la concentración política, los gastos de personal, la presión fiscal y la inversión influyen en el endeudamiento.

La aportación de este trabajo radica en analizar en qué medida ha repercutido la normativa de estabilidad presupuestaria en el nivel de deuda viva. Se ha evidenciado un ligero impacto en la reducción de endeudamiento, aunque no es significativo. Resulta original la aplicación de modelos dinámicos en el estudio de la deuda viva española. Asimismo, se establece el impacto que tienen los factores del entorno político, socioeconómico y presupuestario en un entorno de crisis económica.

The purpose of this paper is to examine and compare the views of mayors and comptrollers of Catalan municipalities on aspects related to the Spanish legislation on financial sustainability – its usefulness and necessity of maintaining, its impact on citizens’ welfare and alternative proposals. The setting is rather interesting as strict rules are imposed by a legislation criticized of mimicking European Commission policies, on well-performing municipalities, in light of the recent “independency” conflict.

The study uses insights from the public choice theory and the concept of accountability to draw a framework that could explain the perceptions of mayors and comptrollers. The views of the two groups are captured with the use of an online questionnaire.

The results indicate that while the application of strict rules has borne fruit, this trend is not sustainable in the long run and a careful reconsideration is required. Accordingly, both groups express concerns on citizens’ future welfare. It moreover appears that in this particular setting, mayors’ and comptrollers’ sense of accountability toward citizens exceed their personal interests.

This study provides empirical evidence on the impact of strict budget stability and sustainability rules on the long-term financial sustainability of local governments from the point of view of mayors and municipality comptrollers who are called to implement them.

The paper aims to describe the process to obtain a complete municipal database from the 2011 Spanish Census information. By complete, the authors mean variables for the full sample of the 8,116 municipalities as of the census reference date. In addition, the database should be consistent with the public census information released by the National Statistical Institute: microdata and customized tables.

The authors use mainly small area demographic and synthetic estimators that are reconciled using biproportional adjustment (iterative proportional fitting), when needed.

As a result, the authors obtain a complete and consistent municipal database composing 55 variables related to socio-demographic characteristics of persons.

The provision of a complete and consistent municipal database, available for download, which is absent in the original 2011 Spanish Census.

The purpose of this research is to analyse the web sites of large Spanish city councils with the objective of assessing the extent of information disseminated on the internet and determining what factors are affecting the observed levels of information disclosure.

The study takes as its reference point the existing literature on the examination of the quality of web sites, in particular the provisions of the Web Quality Model (WQM) and the importance of content as a key variable in determining web site quality. In order to quantify the information on city council web sites, a Disclosure Index has been designed which takes into account the content, navigability and presentation of the web sites. In order to contrast which variables determine the information provided on the web sites, our investigation bases itself on the studies about voluntary disclosure in the public sector, and six lineal regressions models have been performed.

The empirical evidence obtained reveals low disclosure levels among Spanish city council web sites. In spite of this, almost 50 per cent of the city councils have reached the “approved” level and of these, around a quarter obtained good marks. Our results show that disclosure levels depend on political competition, public media visibility and the access to technology and educational levels of the citizens.

The strategy of communication on the internet by local Spanish authorities is limited in general to an ornamental web presence but one that does not respond efficiently to the requirements of the digital society. During the coming years, local Spanish politicians will have to strive to take advantage of the opportunities that the internet offers to increase both the relational and informational capacity of municipal web sites as well as the digital information transparency of their public management.

The internet is a potent channel of communication that is modifying the way in which people access and relate to information and each other. The public sector is not unaware of these changes and is incorporating itself gradually into the new network society. This study systematises the analysis of local administration web sites, showing the lack of digital transparency, and orients politicians in the direction to follow in order to introduce improvements in their electronic relationships with the public.