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This paper analyses the efforts to combat gender-based violence in Spain since the passing of Law 1/2004. This is the applicable legal framework in the fight against gender-based violence (GBV). Based on the official data on the complaints and on the victims of genderbased violence, an empirical analysis was carried out to assess whether the public policies implemented by the Spanish government in the fight against gender-based violence have been effective. The results indicate that, even though Spain is one of the most advanced countries in this area, 15 years after Law 1/2004 was passed, the legal actions contained in it are still insufficient for the eradication of genderbased and domestic violence. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations to broaden the debate on the fight against genderbased violence in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the apparent familism of Spanish society, family policies have never occupied an important place in the political sphere. However, various issues related to family policy have started to appear in the agenda of Spanish political parties in recent years. This paper analyses family-related issues in the electoral programmes of the five national parties that stood for election on 28 April, 2019, namely, Partido Socialista Obrero Español, Partido Popular, Ciudadanos, Unidas-Podemos, and VOX. A qualitative methodology was used that combined both content and discourse analysis. The results point to important ideological differences between these political parties based on their different conceptualisation of the family, but also to significant similarities on various issues related to "family pragmatics". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six years after its sinking, images of the Prestige remain etched in our memory: an overturned, leaking oil tanker losing part of its load and being towed out to high sea over the course of six days, during which time the tanker split in two and sank to a depth of 3,500 meters. The fuel reached the coast in several waves, affecting Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country, and to a lesser extent, France and Portugal. Fishermen, shellfish gatherers, and thousands of volunteers took it upon themselves to prevent the worst consequences of the slick. Demonstrators gathered en masse in Santiago de Compostela… Never before in Spain had a disaster of this nature had such media, social, and political impact. What implications did this have for policies designed to prevent and combat environmental disasters? Did these public policies change as a result of this event? In this paper, frame analysis applied to public policy analysis is used to answer these questions. In other words, the paper analyzes the prevailing discourse regarding these public policies, how the problem is defined, what is identified as its cause, how the problem is situated geographically, to whom the problem and liability for it is attributed, what the proposed solutions are, what or who the targets of the policies are, the places at which these policies are aimed, and who should act to solve the problem. This analysis enables us both to conclude that the Prestige disaster did not bring about an essential change in Spanish public policies designed to prevent and combat marine oil pollution, and to draw lessons for improving the effectiveness of the public policies analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following Coleman's statement about contemporary society being asymmetric, the purpose of this paper is to assess the differents kinds of public action that recur in present-day societies. Generally speaking, political and sociological literature has given priority to public action dominated by associations, which are observed as the protagonists of the defence of citizenry in an asymmetric society. In this respect, the design of public policies aimed at strengthening and expanding associative activity is legitimated. The main reason for this type of policy is that the decline of associative activity has often been linked with a decline in the democratic fabric of a particular community. In the second part of this paper, we suggest that far from producing this decline, we can confirm the emergence of other forms of participation which, while not starting out from the hypothesis of an associative movement, do share the political scenario with associations. We also demonstrate that both public administrations and civil associations are reporting on this type of participation, which makes its emergence both possible and easy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the achievement of the poverty targets of the EU's 2020 Strategy. To this end, for the first time for all EU Member States, an alternative measure of monetary poverty is built using fuzzy set methodology, which helps to avoid some of the drawbacks of the EU's AROPE indicator. The results from the Fuzzy Poverty Indicator (FPI) reveal that the probability of a citizen being poor in the EU has increased slightly since the launch of the Strategy in just over 20 basis points. The EU is not achieving its intended aims and also shows a significant lack of coordination due to a lack of uniformity in objectives and different behavior among Member States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is threefold: 1) to compare the impact of the Normalisation of 2005 with the new Settlement Programme established in 2006; 2) to analyse the trajectories of applicants from both programmes after their regularisation; 3) to examine the regularisation of applicants who were unable to qualify in their first attempt via the Normalisation or, subsequently, through the Settlement Programme. Two approaches have been implemented: one cross-sectional, to analyse the volume and intensity of entry, and the other longitudinal, to monitor the trajectories of applicants from both programmes. Specific data from 2005 to 2010 from the Government Representation Office in the Province of Barcelona have been used. Whilst the results shed some optimism on both programmes, they also demonstrate the difficulty of regularisation in times of economic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the transformation that water policy in Spain has undergone in recent decades. The erosion of a strongly united hydraulic policy community has given way to a widespread and plural network in which modern hydrological policy is under discussion. In this network, a new discourse about sustainability (the «New Water Culture») brings new State and non-governmental actors together in an innovative form of «issue politics». We document this phenomenon by using research strategies drawn from analyses of public issues on the Internet. More precisely, we trace the «New Water Culture» network on the Web, analyse its structure and consider the political meaning of its history. On the basis of the study carried out, we claim that a hydrological policy commonwealth has emerged on the Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I argue that the State's agenda deals basically with issues of development, governance, and equality. Starting out from this premise, I explore whether the differences between countries in terms of these three variables have a structural pattern and, if so, how stable this pattern is throughout the period under study. Using cluster analysis, I conclude that the world can be divided in two main groups whose composition remains relatively stable. In addition, it is shown that the governance gap between the two groups tends to diminish, but this is not followed by a concomitant improvement in development and equality gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]