GLOBAL COOPERATION NEWSLETTERMARCH 2013

In this issueThe Social and Political Crisis in Spain
Meeting of minds, meeting of hearts? UNICEF and the World Bank discovercommon ground on social protection
Social media and citizen engagement
Useful resources and links

 Featured article: The social and political crisis in SpainÍñigo Errejón, PhD

Íñigo Errejón has a doctorate (PhD) in Political Scienceand is a researcher at the Complutense University of Madrid. He has also been a visiting
scholar at several European and American universities. His areas of specialization include
discourse analysis, political systems and social change processes. His e-mail is:ierrejon@cps.ucm.es

As I am completing the writing of this article, Cyprus -- a small Mediterranean country on
the European periphery -- is sinking into financial collapse and has already been
negotiating with the EU and the IMF on a "bailout" of its banks, after its Parliament
rejected the first draconian proposal. Following the Greek financial meltdown earlier,
Cyprus appears as another manifestation of the dramatic consequences of the neoliberalmanagement of the economic crisis by the powerful financial institutions with transnationalreach. While not having reached the dramatic stage now seen in Cyprus, the Spanish
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socio-economic situation is steadily growing worse over time, and events have been
evolving both rapidly and unpredictably.
Since the global financial crash in the summer of 2008, the Spanish economy began
experiencing financial turbulence, which has now put the country into a state of recession
or, in official terms, "negative growth". That situation has been aggravated by theorthodox neoliberal austerity measures, which, under the mandate of the European andinternational financial institutions - the "Troika" consisting of the International Monetary
Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank, none of which gets theirpolitical power from any popular vote - have been imposed by successive Spanish
governments from the main political parties of both the center-left (PSOE) and the centerright (PP), which were able to reform the Constitution so as to give priority to debt
payments over any other public expenditure, including social services. With the ongoing
European crisis, the dramatic weaknesses of the Spanish socio-economic model havebecome evident. Its key features are as follows: a very limited and fragile welfare statethat suffers from the low capacity of the state to collect and redistribute fiscal resources,
relying instead largely on European assistance; a mass consumption culture, primarily
based on the use of consumer credit and the fictitious effect of support for families insteadof public welfare networks; a development pattern that has concentrated, after thedemise of the industrial base, on economic sectors that have provided little value-added,
such as tourism, financial speculation, and real estate investment, being also quite
volatile. On top of everything, there is a national economic elite that has sought
enrichment mainly through the reduction of environmental regulations and labor costs,
with the use of cheap immigrant labor, as well as the management of public concessions
and speculative activities in the quest for short-term profits. All of the above has created asystem that has limited capacity to implement effective regulation of the national economy
and remains very vulnerable to international speculative turbulence. In addition, thedominant elites have, at the first signs of economic difficulties, tried to shift the costs ofreforms onto salaried workers and small businesses, seeking to dismantle public services
and to open new business opportunities through privatizations and the commercializationof sectors that were previously publicly-owned or provided public goods such as
education or water management.
Such measures, taken out of the arsenal of neoliberal orthodoxy, have resulted in cuts insocial spending and increases in indirect taxes (which are known to be the mostregressive). These measures have had a dramatic social impact in terms of increased
unemployment and the wider spread of casual and part-time work, pushing up poverty
levels, and leading to further social polarization. The decline in income has affected mostof the population, lowering their consumer spending, and has had an aggravating effect on
the already depressed economic situation. In addition, the neoliberal policies have further
undermined the already weak Spanish welfare state, especially in terms of unemployment
assistance, public health care and education, and the universal old-age pensions. Overall,
the adjustment program imposed by the institutions without an electoral mandate from
Spanish citizens has had an effect similar to the programs applied in Latin America in the1980s and 1990s: a spiral of recession, growing poverty and increasing social tensions.
That period became known as "the lost decade", a situation that has now come tocharacterize the peripheral countries of southern Europe.
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The effect of those measures has been a de facto abandonment of the social contract
established in 1978 after the demise of the Franco dictatorship, the adoption of theConstitution and the transition to democracy. That social contract produced a broad social
consensus and political stability for over thirty years – maybe with the exception of thestill existing regional tensions related to the ethnical complexities of the Spanish state.
Today, however, the social contract is breaking up under the impact of the delegitimizationof the leading political elites, impoverishment on a large scale, the loss of social rights andthe lack of prospects for a new generation of Spaniards, for whom the rights enshrined in
the Constitution have become mere formalities with no real effect, as they see that theiropportunities in life have been curtailed or even blocked.
Many young people, perhaps the best educated generation in the history of Spain, are fully
aware of the huge gap between their expectations and an existing reality characterized
by the need to adjust to widespread social uncertainty or consider emigration. This is thefirst generation in a century for whom, even in the absence of the negative consequencesof a wide-scale military conflict, it is pretty clear that they might not be able to achieve
the material level of well-being of their parents. The already limited social protection
system is now being reduced to a minimum (with cuts in scholarships for high school orcollege, the new barriers introduced on receiving unemployment benefits and the end of
rental subsidies or programmes for home purchases by young people). The immediate
result of the above policies has been to strengthen the traditional “Southern pattern”:
most often families remain the main institution that provides protection and security for its
members. In practice, both the “adult” middle-age generation, with its more stable wages
and work arrangements, and retirees with their pension benefits have been sustaining thenew younger generation that is entering the labor market with great difficulties. The above
is proved by the data on youth employment and the quality of employment, which
demonstrates many precarious work arrangements experienced by youth and sustainable
only because young people keep receiving additional income support from their families.
Measures such as promoting access to housing, education and income support for young
people and the introduction of a basic income for students, the unemployed and the poor
would give genuine meaning to some of the social rights set out in the Spanish
Constitution, also making it possible for young people to exercise full and active
citizenship, despite the fact that age-based criteria make them a minority in society. But
such measures would require a bold and robust public policy of redistribution, which islacking and which would entail progressive changes in the ratio between the income
earned by labor and that acquired by capital, changes that have been very far from theideas supported by the major parties and for which today’s dogma of austerity leaves little
political or fiscal space.
The described situation has a very important political impact in terms of the loss ofconfidence in the principal actors of the political system, who are increasingly perceived,
as shown even in the surveys of official institutions, as being all linked to each other andas serving not the public interest but rather the power of the dominant economic groups.
The result of the growing gap between constituents and their representatives, amid theblockage in the institutional channels for dealing with social demands on the government
and pursuing a very unpopular adjustment program, has been an increase in politicalconflict, with the merging of the traditional union organizations and the rise of many newPage 3 of 6

collective actors such as the so called "indignados" movement, the massive “tides” indefense of public services (such as health, education, etc.), and groups protesting against
the eviction of families who cannot afford to pay their mortgages and who lost their hometo the bank while still being obliged to pay the debt (estimated to amount to 500 evictions
weekly, making families homeless, adding up to 46,000 in 2013 so far). Thosedemonstrations, despite having only indirect impact on the Spanish political system, aregenerating a massive politicization of the everyday problems of the impoverished majority,
problems that had previously been experienced as private hardships but today add up to
growing discontent across a broad ideological and social spectrum.
The austerity program also leaves little room for the government to meet some of themost wide-spread and urgent social demands The entrenched corruption among the major
political parties and the crown have led to their discreditation, with attitudes fluctuating
between fear, cynicism and outrage, even among the less politicized sectors of the society.
This is a dramatic social situation, but one that is open to new political developments thatwere unprecedented and unexpected just three years ago. Among all, what seems lesslikely is that the status quo could be sustained with no modifications in policies. Spain isundergoing a period that fits perfectly into Antonio Gramsci’s description of crises:"periods when the old hasn’t quite died and the new hasn’t quite been born". One might
venture a hypothesis at such a stage, hard as it may be, that the ongoing evolution willlead to one of the following options: 1) The quick and sudden imposition by thegovernment or by some of its transnational “proxies” of the whole package ofadjustments, which would end up defeating public resistance without much political cost
but changing the social landscape of Spain, with the destruction of public services, theoligarchic redefinition of the social contract, the impoverishment of large segments of thepopulation and the adaptation to a peripheral role in the European division of labor; 2) The
partial adoption of some of the social demands but in a superficial way while changing only
minor elements of the political regime but preserving its central components, andinvolving a negotiated moderate adjustment package whose impact would depend on thestrength of the partners in the negotiations; 3) The expression of discontent andresistance to the austerity and cuts in social spending in a way that will lead to a new
democratic popular consensus regarding a more or less complete break with the austerity
program, introducing measures for an urgent social bailout of the impoverished majority
and the recovery of the popular sovereignty, with deep implications for the economic
model and the eventual more equal distribution of the burdens of the current economic
and fiscal crisis.
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect
views of the ICSW Management Committee

 Meeting of minds, meeting of hearts? UNICEF and the World Bank discovercommon ground on social protection
The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) is a human-rights organization, and its workon social protection is framed within a human-rights based approach to development. TheWorld Bank’s approach to social protection has been anchored on the provision of targetedincome support and access to basic social services to the poorest population groups andPage 4 of 6those needing assistance after economic downturns or other events that pose major risk.
Yet both organizations are making efforts to identify areas of potential collaboration,
creating a common framework for helping countries develop or further strengthen theirsocial protection systems.
Having recently released strategic documents on social
protection— the UNICEF report is called
Social Protection Strategic Framework (http://www.unicef.org/socialprotection/framework ) andthat of the World Bank
Resilience, Equity and Opportunity: The World Bank 2012-2022 Social Protection andLabor Strategy
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/SOCIALPROTECTION/Resources/2805581274453001167/7089867-1279223745454/72539171291314603217/SPL_Strategy_2012-22_FINAL.pdf--both agencies are seeking common ground and increased coherence, particularly at
the country level. One common message—the importance of building integrated socialprotection systems—has emerged after therecent
UNICEF-World Bank Webinar
convened to explore points of mutual interest between two agencies in the organizationof social protection systems on the ground.
While there is an expressed caveat that no “one-size-fits-all” solutions exist and neitherorganization is willing to prescribe a specific pathway for countries to follow, both
agencies are striving to provide countries with coordinated support and a coherent
message, regardless of their specific mandates. Furthermore, they set the goal ofengaging other strategic partners in integrated systems work. Admittedly, the theory ofintegrated systems has been much better explored compared to the existing evidence, but
it is hoped that the emerging practices will be helpful in informing both strategic thinking
and down-to-earth policies. Both agencies are concerned that there has been in recentyears a proliferation of social protection programs that are often fragmented with little orno coordination, which may undermine their efficiency and efficacy. So it is important forsystems to be internally coherent—at the policy, program and administrative levels—andexternally coherent when other sectors are involved. Both organizations are planning tocollaborate on collecting evidence, identifying tools and knowledge sharing.
The question raised during the webinar discussions regarding the relation of the proposed
approach to the Social Protection Floor (SPF) Initiative was also addressed and answered.
The joint work on systems envisions support for the implementation of the SPF initiative,
particularly regarding guidance on how to make the SPF operational. There is a professed
expectation on the part of both the UNICEF and the World Bank teams that working tostrengthen inter-agency work on integrated systems through their membership in theSocial Protection Inter-Agency Cooperation Board, is beneficial for getting other partners
to collaborate on SPARCS (Social Protection Assessment of Results and CountrySystems)—a platform for developing common instruments and methodologies for theassessment of social protection systems.
 Social Media and Citizens Engagement
Delegates to IPU’s 128th Assembly convened in Quito, Ecuador from 22 to 27 March 2013
and adopted a resolution that calls on parliaments to use social media to better inform andengage with their citizens but also to protect the right of the freedom of expression on andPage 5 of 6

off-line. The resolution also underscored that a free, open and accessible internet is both afundamental human right and a tool for citizen engagement. Parliamentarians also needed
to take on the responsibility of ensuring citizens’ access to free and secure online
communications. The resolution followed IPU’s release of its first-ever set of social media
guidelines for MPs and parliamentary staff. Available freely online, it aims to encourage
the more widespread and effective use of social media by parliaments and politicians, aswell as provide guidance to those responsible for managing social media channels. The
guidelines help to define the scope and purpose of social media for parliaments, while also
providing a benchmark for good practice in citizen engagement. The World e-Parliament
Report identified that by the end of 2012, a third of all parliaments were already usingsocial media with another third planning to do so.
 Useful resources and linksFor
thesocialmedia
guidelines
mentioned
http://www.ipu.org/PDF/publications/SMG2013EN.pdf

above,

pleasegoto:

For the World e-Parliament Report the link is:
http://www.ipu.org/english/surveys.htm#e-parl2012
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