Models of local governing coalitions: city politics and policy effects in Spanish municipalities

Local governance involves coalitions between public and private actors on policy issues. Actors participating in these coalitions may vary according to the issue in question, even within the same city. Based on a survey carried out among actors from different sectors of the local political community in four Spanish cities, governance networks are analyzed across five different issues: public housing, cultural tourism, urban regeneration, social policy, and citizen participation. Using network analysis and indexes in a comparative examination of 20 policy networks, we show that variations across networks are explained by policy issue content and supra-municipal regulations, regardless of the cities’ political characteristics.