Spain has been changing its institutional framework in important ways over the past thirty years. The country has gone from a dictatorship to a democracy, from a unitary state to a decentralized one, from authoritarian politics to a self-conscious, civil society with a developed welfare state within a European context.

Federal development in post-Franco Spain reaches far beyond familiar Basque/Catalan nationalistic struggles and includes the creation of an increasing number of intergovernmental networks by local governments, particularly municipalities, as they engage regional, central, and other local entities to operate programs and services in basic and emergent policy areas. By examining the intergovernmental networks in an increasingly federalized Spain, Robert Agranoff shows that local governments, although they occupy a strong position in legal and constitutional terms, are in practice subordinate to both central and regional governments and therefore lack adequate power and resources to deal with both the responsibilities assigned to them and those they'd like to assume. As a result, local governments are forced into a series of intergovernmental arrangements and transactions with governmental and nongovernmental organizations.

The Spanish situation provides important insights into intergovernmental relations in all decentralized countries, particularly in revealing how autonomy can create a host of complex intergovernmental linkages, partnerships, and transactions that require complex networks at the elected official and administrative level.