Local government in Spain

Local government in Spain refers to the government and administration of what the Constitution calls "local entities", which are primarily municipalities, but also groups of municipalities including provinces, metropolitan areas, comarcas and mancomunidades and sub-municipal groups known as minor local entities (Spanish: Entidad de Ámbito Territorial Inferior al Municipio).

The administration of these entities is mostly provided by a council, each with a different name and set of rules (Spanish: régimen). These councils can be collectively thought of as a third sphere (or tier) of government, the first being the State (Spain) and the second, the regional governments.

The powers enjoyed by local government are defined in both central government and regional government legislation. Consequently and for historical reasons, local government is heterogeneous, not distributed in a balanced way across the nation, involves duplication of services and has even been labelled dysfunctional. The Constitution declares that local government has autonomy which broadly means that the entities have the right to take decisions for the running of local services without political interference from the Regions or from the central government. However the concept has proven difficult to define in a detailed legal way.

Although Spain adheres to the European Charter of Local Self-Government, it declares itself not bound to the full extent by the requirement for direct elections of all local government authorities.