European Policy Analysis or program ( Padioleau 1989 ).
In the field of Spanish Politics and Administration , there have been a considerable number of publications regarding the analysis of inter-governmental relations since the 1990s . The Canadian experience ( Arbos et al . 2009 ) has acted as a framework of analysis , given the more structured workings of its parties and the cultural and linguistic diversity there . The configuration of the inter-governmental relations system in Spain has been variable and has gone through different stages with several actors playing distinct roles and strategies ( Bañón and Tamayo 1997 ). This evolution has not been free of obstacles that have stood in the way of effectively dealing with complexity and interdependence . Of these obstacles , as identified by Mendoza , it is possible to highlight the great importance in the political culture of State-Autonomous Regions rivalry , an administrative culture reluctant to “ lose " competences and a clear lack of traditional mechanisms of the bureaucratic kind to respond to the needs of a decentralized and plural administrative context ( Mendoza 1990 ).
The work carried out by Agranoff ( 1993 ) on inter-governmental relations and the State of the Autonomous Regions provides another interesting study , dealing with the transfer of competences , funding , political strength , bureaucratic structures , and the creation of programs for political action . From another perspective , Goma and Subirats analyzed the style of formulation of public policies in Spain within the framework of territorial complexity and multi-level governance , as key elements of policy style . This analysis demonstrated how territorial complexity involves referring to two simultaneous dynamics : Europeanization and territorialization , both understood as displacements of the processes of government , toward the European Union and the sub-national level ( Goma and Subirats 1998 ). Later , Subirats and Gallego ( 2002 ) tackled the study of the nominalization of the Autonomous Regions within the Spanish system of intergovernmental relations using different indicators such as the legislative production of the Autonomous Regions , the profile of the political elites , and the organizational structures and human resources of the regional authorities , in an analysis of regional performance . There have also been other contemporary studies that are interesting for our purposes , such as those by Máiz , Beramendi , and Grau ( 2002 ); López Nieto ( 2006 ); Garcia Morales , Montilla , and Arbós ( 2006 ); Ramos , Alda , and Cicuéndez ( 2006 ); Ridaura ( 2009 ); Sevilla , Vidal , and Elias ( 2009 ) and Saniger Martinez and Escribano Zafra ( 2010 ). All of them take a broad perspective on the phenomenon of intergovernmental relations in the Spanish case , worrying about consolidation and institutionalization of inter-territorial relations . Particularly relevant to our topic are some of them that deal with specific Sectoral Conferences like those written by Colino ( 2002 ) and Alda and Ramos ( 2004 ).
The studies by Arbós et al . ( 2009 ) and Colino ( 2012 ) are two of the analyses that have gone into greatest depth as regards the real workings of the instruments of cooperation in the State of the Autonomous Regions . Those contributions and the work of León and Ferrín ( 2012 ) represent a fundamental starting point for the present research . Their findings and conclusions , particularly with respect to the operation of the Spanish Sectoral Conferences , have led us to tackle the matter through an analysis of the real workings of these bodies , based on the selection of three of them ( Education ,
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