New left governments have reached out to municipalities in Spain with an agenda for the promotion of new participatory institutions. Newer versions of participatory budgeting as well as online platforms for proposal-making have been the most visible channels. However, this is only one side of the coin. These governments have been less visible in their programs to change associative-based institutions such as advisory councils. The issue of the reform of advisory councils allows looking how new left governments deal with previous and traditional participatory instruments. Have they reformed it? Have they tried to integrate some innovation in these ‘old school’ participatory settings? Because they are the most frequent participatory instrument, it seems important to follow their legacy in a very new political context.

In this paper, we analyze the cases of Madrid and Barcelona, governed by the new left in the term 2015-2019. Both governments have implemented policies in regard to the traditional associative participation in advisory councils. Four case-studies were developed in the policy areas of immigration and education. Specifically, we conducted 23 interviews with a variety of informants in April- September 2018, to understand how associative and advisory participation changed over the term.

The analysis shows that in the case of Barcelona the deep tradition of sectorial and territorial councils has driven the local government to set an ambitious agenda to revitalize them. In contrast, in the case of Madrid, the local government did not manage to develop a coherent agenda, showing high doses of improvisation: innovation from the scratch in some areas (education), stagnation in other (immigration). In Spain, political parties have been very concerned with their relationships with –a selection of- preferred associations especially at the local level (Navarro, 2000). The strength of their socio-political coalition and their associative supports would suggest a high interest in making these participatory instruments useful and dynamic.

Navarro Yáñez, C. J. (2000). El sesgo participativo. Introducción a la teoría empírica de la democracia participativa. Papers: revista de sociologia, (61), 11-37.